Putin Swerves ICC?

The grapevine has it that Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation is avoiding the summit of the BRICS slated for Johannesburg, South Africa in August.

Mr. Putin is a target of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, ICC, over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin, the Commander-In-Chief of the powerful Russian army led his country to war in 2022 with Ukraine, just after the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

South Africa is a signatory to the ICC’s treaty which obliges members to arrest on their territories any person declared wanted by the court. It is the first such attempt on a Russian leader and for that matter any powerful country.

South Africa, a staunch diplomatic ally of Russia had been invigorated by the ICC measure ahead of the high-level BRICS meeting by trying to amend in parliament, its law on the case and make it possible for Putin to attend.

The South African government is unfazed by the international hysteria which has led to increasing isolation of Russia by the West but which has also seen Russia on a diplomatic offensive to build a queue of allies in what geopolitical scientists attest to be the new cold war.

BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is an economic bloc mainly of emerging powers intended as an alternative to the existing global financial system controlled by rival powers.