SOUTH African officials have been warned by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the 15th BRICS Summit in August, they must either ensure his attendance is virtual or arrest him.
Last month, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin, alleging that Moscow’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children constituted a war crime. South Africa, as an ICC member, would be required to detain Putin if he attends the summit.
BRICS, a group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is seen as a powerful emerging-market alternative to the West.
Ukrainian activist Oleksandra Romantsova, executive director of Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties, warned that if Putin were to attend the summit, South Africa must arrest him. Romantsova formed part of a Ukrainian civil society delegation that aimed to share information about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In an interview at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she was participating in a seminar, Romantsova told Reuters: ‘If Putin comes here… they [South Africa] need to arrest him. It’s a complicated political situation. So better that Putin join via Zoom.’
Zane Dangor, director-general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, confirmed that officials met with the
Ukrainian delegation but declined to provide details. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that his government was still deliberating what to do about the warrant for Putin, and officials with knowledge of the deliberations have suggested that a virtual attendance by Putin was being considered.
South Africa is one of Russia’s most important allies on a continent divided over the Ukraine war and Western attempts to isolate Moscow because of it. South Africa held a joint naval exercise with Russia and China in February, and Ramaphosa talked about acting as a mediator in the conflict last year but failed to gain much traction. Romantsova stressed that if South Africa wanted to mediate, it needed to have a strong connection with Ukraine, not just Russia. ‘You need to understand t
he situation in Ukraine, you have to need have a regular connection,’ she said.
