By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ukrainian activist Oleksandra Romantsova has told South African officials to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to take part in this year’s BRICS summit in Pretoria virtually rather than attending in-person for fear of being taken into custody.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant for Putin last month.
As a member of the global court ICC, South Africa is expected to detain Putin if he attends the 15th BRICS Summit to be hosted by South Africa in August this year.
Members of the BRICS group include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a bloc seen as a powerful emerging-market alternative to the West.
“If Putin comes here … they (South Africa) need to arrest him. It’s a complicated political situation. So better that Putin join via Zoom,” Romantsova told Reuters in an interview at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she was participating in a seminar.
Romantsova is the executive director of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties which jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
It forms part of a Ukrainian civil society delegation that aimed to share information about the war in Ukraine that has continued after one year.
The ICC issued the warrant for Putin alleging Moscow’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children was a war crime. The Kremlin has reacted with outrage, saying any decisions of the court are “null and void.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations its forces have committed atrocities during the invasion.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week that his government was still deliberating what to do about the warrant for Putin.
Three officials with knowledge of those deliberations have told Reuters that Putin attending the BRICS summit virtually was an option that was being considered.
South Africa is one of Russia’s most important allies on a continent divided over the Ukraine war and Western attempts to isolate Moscow because of it.
