By Oyintari Ben
According to the South African Presidency, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, will not attend the BRICS meeting in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement.”
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, will represent his country instead, the presidency announced in a statement.
Hosting the meeting presented a challenge for South Africa since, if Putin attended, the country would theoretically have to detain him for alleged war crimes under the rules of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A warrant for Putin’s arrest has been issued by the ICC.
The summit will be attended by the presidents of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, according to the presidency.
