Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday held telephone conversation with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, where both leaders centered their discussions around the Ukraine’s Black Sea grain deal which expires Monday, as well as the August summit of the BRICS bloc, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
Putin’s in-person attendance at the BRICS summit is delicate for both countries, arising from an arrest warrant issued against him in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accused him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.
The warrant implies that member states of the ICC – of which South Africa is one – are obliged to arrest him if he sets foot on their territory. Russia said at the time that the warrant was “outrageous” and legally void because Russia is not an ICC member.
The Kremlin has yet to say publicly if Putin intends to attend the summit.
In Saturday’s statement, it said Ramaphosa had briefed Putin about preparations for the event, but did not give details of their exchange.
On the Black Sea grain deal, which expires on Monday unless Russia agrees to extend it, Putin reiterated to Ramaphosa that commitments to remove obstacles to Russian food and fertiliser exports had not yet been fulfilled, the Kremlin said.
Russia has repeatedly said that for this reason, it sees no grounds to renew the deal, originally struck a year ago to enable Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.
Putin said in comments to reporters on Thursday, that rather than renew the arrangement next week, Moscow might pull out and wait for its demands to be met before rejoining.
Russia has threatened to quit the deal before, however, only to renew it at the last minute.
The Kremlin said Putin and Ramaphosa would also hold bilateral talks on the fringes of a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg later this month.
