Recently, South Africa is facing immense pressure from the Western countries over the arrest of Vladimir Putin as he is about to visit South Africa for BRICS summit in August,2023. It is anticipated that South Africa will arrest Putin and will be kept in South African Jail. Ukraine has been pleading South Africa to arrest Putin during his visit. After hearing the news, Russians are panicking over Putin’s arrest warrant. Putin arrest warrant was issued by ICC during Russia- Ukraine conflict. This warrant is applicable in all ICC signatory countries; thus, Western Countries are pressuring South Africa to implement its power and arrest Putin whenever he arrives in a country.
This incident started with President of Russia, Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, alleging responsibility for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children during Ukraine- Russia Conflict. According to International Criminal Court (ICC), Russian President, Vladimir Putin has made this decision and it was carried out by Maria Lvova on ground. Putin thought that his decision of deportation and transfer of children to Russia was for the well-being of the children, who have lost their parents in the conflict, but Western Countries blamed Russia for Child kidnapping and pressurized Russia to return the children to Ukraine. There is news that Russia has started returning the children to Ukraine on regular basis, but this has not calmed West’s Anger, the countries want all the Ukrainian Children to be returned as soon as possible. During this period, ICC issued an arrest warrant that stated, its member countries should immediately arrest Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, whenever he visits the member countries.
International Criminal Court (ICC)
ICC or International Criminal Court is an international court for individual criminals who have committed war crimes or any other related activities. ICC headquarters is located in Netherlands. There are many countries that fall under the jurisdiction of ICC like USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, etc., but some countries do not fall under its jurisdiction or is not a member country like India, China, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia etc. This shows that Putin can easily visit the non-member countries without being arrested.
Pressure on South Africa
South Africa is set to host this year’s BRICS summit in August 22 to 24, all the leaders of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will be coming to South Africa to attend the summit. President Putin along with President Ramaphosa, President Silva, President Xi and Prime Minister Modi will all meet in South Africa for 15th BRICS summit. Now the question is, is South Africa willing arrest President Putin when he visits South Africa? Being a member country for ICC as well as BRICS, all the attention has moved towards South Africa now and it is facing immense pressure from the western Countries on the arrest of President Putin. Now South Africa cannot ask Putin to not come as it would affect the relation between the two countries and it would not look good if everyone except Putin attend the summit. At one-point, South Africa started discussing about withdrawing its membership from ICC but the decision is yet to be made.
Threats for South Africa
Russia has, on record, declared that Russia will bomb any country if Putin gets arrested. This has put South Africa in tough position because if they arrest Putin than they could be attacked by Russia and if they don’t arrest Putin and withdraw from ICC, western countries would not remove South Africa from the FATF grey list, in which it was added recently along with Nigeria, as a punishment. Now the decision is upon South Africa, which side will it bend to. Bend towards Russia and make western countries angry and stay in the grey list for a longer period of time or bend towards western countries and destroy relation with Russia and BRICS countries.
FAQ;
When is the 15th BRICS summit?
South Africa will be hosting 15th BRICS summit, in August 22 to 24, 2023, in Durban. This year’s BRICS summit is in news as all the countries leader will be visiting South Africa personally and South Africa is under pressure that President Putin would also be visiting and South Africa has an arrest warrant to arrest him as an ICC member country. South Africa is yet to make its decision regarding this matter.
What is BRICS summit?
BRICS is the group of five countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This was made in 2006. BRICS countries hold summit each year, which is attended by all the head of states of the member countries. BRICS has many guest countries as well which are not full-fledged member but will join in future.