Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr [Sergey] Lavrov,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement.
South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes, it would theoretically be required to arrest him if he were to attend.
The dilemma led to intense debate in South Africa and the West about whether the warrant would be executed, given South Africa’s stance of neutrality on the war in Ukraine and Pretoria’s historic ties to the Kremlin.
In 2015, South Africa also failed to arrest then-Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who was also the subject of an ICC warrant.
The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend the summit, the presidency said.
BRICS, a bloc of emerging economic powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China was formed in 2019 as BRIC. South Africa joined the following year after an invitation from China, expanding the group.
Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina have also applied to join the bloc.
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Don’t assume from nothing. We are capable of having civil discussions but Russian propagandists don’t deserve civil discourse as long as they support an illegal war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians.
Why are Russian Tankies so profoundly blind to the harm they are causing?
Who would even try to talk to them with kids gloves knowing they’re heartless people who are championing the death of Ukrainians?
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Wake up… says the person being 100% obtuse.
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And you just assumed I was including you in my comment when I said, “they’re heartless people who are championing the death of Ukrainians?”
I was referring to people who support the failed invasion of Ukraine. If you don’t support Russian invading Ukraine, I wasn’t including you. Because you took issue with what I said, you’ve basically admitted that you do support Russian’s war in Ukraine.
Wow. You are next level stupid. I hope you get paid well for such shit work.