Johannesburg (EFE).- The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, confirmed today that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will not attend the summit of the group of emerging economies BRICS next August, after months of controversy over the international arrest warrant that weighs on the president of Russia.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the country will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,” the South African Presidency said in a statement.
As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), South Africa, which will host the BRICS summit on August 22-24 in Johannesburg, is obliged to cooperate in Putin’s arrest.
However, Ramaphosa refused to arrest his Russian counterpart because it would be like a “declaration of war” against Russia, the Gauteng (north) High Court reported on Tuesday, which published a statement by the president.
“It would be contrary to our Constitution to risk going to war with Russia,” Ramaphosa said in responding to a lawsuit filed by South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (AD), seeking a “declaratory order” guaranteeing the Putin’s arrest.
Russia denies warnings to South Africa
The Kremlin has today denied that it has warned South Africa that the detention of Russian President Vladimir Putin on its territory would be a declaration of war.
“Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, according to a hitherto confidential statement made public on Tuesday against the will of the head of state.
The spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, denied this point today, although he has also made it clear that “everyone in this world knows perfectly well what it means to attempt actions against the Russian head of state.” “That’s why you don’t have to explain anything to anyone,” he stressed.
South Africa claims to have taken a neutral stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine, and has called for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict.
Brazil, Russia, India and China created the BRIC group in 2006, which was joined by South Africa in 2010, adding the letter S to the acronym.