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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend an economic summit in South Africa next month, and the country is desperate to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic consequences of his international arrest warrant for South Africa’s vice-president, he said on Friday an interview with a news website.
As a signatory to the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin on charges the court brought against the Russian leader in March for war crimes related to kidnapping children from Ukraine.
Moscow has rejected the arrest warrant. South African authorities are likely to breach the treaty and not arrest Putin, but some opposition parties, human rights groups and rights activists said he should be arrested and threatened to do so themselves, raising security concerns for the BRICS summit in Johannesburg.
With South Africa already opting not to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, relations with the West could be further strained if Putin allows unhindered attendance at the summit of BRICS emerging countries from Brazil, Russia, India, China and the South Africa.
Putin has not traveled to a signatory country of the court agreement since the arrest warrant was issued against him.
The Kremlin has not said Putin will attend, and the brief insurgency of private military group Wagner in Russia seemed unlikely that he would travel after such a serious threat to his rule.
But Russia wants Putin to be present along with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the other presidents, South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile said in an interview with News24, a leading South African news outlet. All leaders were invited to the summit before charges were brought against Putin, South Africa said.
“It’s a big dilemma for us. Of course we can’t arrest him,” Mashatile said. “It’s almost like inviting a friend over to your house and then arresting them. Therefore, for us, not coming is the best solution. However, the Russians are not happy. They want him to come.”
Mashatile has been tasked by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with finding a solution. Russia has rejected the alternatives, which include moving the summit to China, holding a virtual summit or having Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov represent Russia, Mashatile said.
Ramaphosa will now try to persuade Putin not to go to South Africa when they meet at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg later this month, Mashatile said.
“We have now decided to leave this matter to the President who will speak to Putin,” Mashatile said. “The President will be going to the Russia-Africa Summit later this month, so they will keep talking. We want to show him the challenges we face because we are part of the Rome Statute and we cannot break away from it.”
South Africa has history on the matter, having failed in 2015 to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on a visit to South Africa when he was wanted by the ICC tribunal on alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Allowing Putin to attend the BRICS meeting would put more pressure on South Africa’s relations with the US and its other key Western diplomatic and trading partners.
US-South Africa relations are already strained after the US accused Africa’s most developed country of supplying weapons to Moscow for the war in Ukraine on a Russian cargo ship that visited South Africa’s main naval base near Cape Town in December to have delivered.
South Africa has denied there were any arms transactions, but Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the visit of the ship Lady R, which is under US sanctions for allegedly transporting arms to Moscow.
AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
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