Vladimir Putin not to attend BRICS summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the BRICS summit to be held in South Africa in August 2023.

This was stated in the Office of the President of South Africa.

"By mutual agreement, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," the statement reads.

In May, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa issued an order extending diplomatic immunities to participants in the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit. The summit will be held in August in Johannesburg. This has led to discussions about how the granting of immunity will affect Putin's status. South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute, so it has to arrest the Russian president, whose arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court.

Later, the South African government announced that it was preparing amendments to the legislation to decide independently whether to arrest people under an ICC warrant. As a result, the opposition Democratic Alliance party filed a lawsuit to force the South African government to arrest Putin if he attended the BRICS summit.

In July, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Kareem Khan, said that South Africa must comply with international law if Putin visits South Africa in August.

And the day before, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the arrest of the Russian president should he turn up at the BRICS summit would mean a declaration of war against Russia.