South Africa Says Putin Won’t Be Arrested at BRICS Summit

Which Putin will decide whether or not he goes to Johannesburg: the ‘tough guy’ or the eternal coward?

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

Putin may be heading out of Russia soon and the chances that he will be arrested have dropped unfortunately to roughly zero. As a member of the BRICS countries, Praetoria has granted Putin diplomatic immunity to attend the meeting meaning he will not be arrested.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said the summit would not be virtual but did not confirm whether Putin — who has been invited to the event — would attend in person. Pretoria was reportedly planning to try to move the summit to China, which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding document (South Africa Faces Diplomatic Dilemma).

South Africa, like China, refuses to condemn Russia’s invasion. South Africa, unlike China, is a signatory of the International Criminal Court which means that Putin on its territory could be arrested for crimes against humanity.

While of course most of this discussion is entirely moot given that Putin’s more paranoid and calculating side would never let him leave Russia in the wake of the recent coup, there is also the cowardly part of his despicable personality that would never see him boarding a…