Arresting Vladimir Putin would be tantamount to declaring war on Russia, said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in documents published on Tuesday July 18 in the midst of a national debate on the reception of the Russian president for the BRICS summit. Mr. Putin is invited to the summit, scheduled for August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg, of this group of five major emerging powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), currently chaired by Pretoria and which intends to weigh more in the international institutions, hitherto dominated by the United States and Europe.
But the Russian leader has been targeted since March by an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for the war crime of “deportation of children” since the invasion of Ukraine – charges that Moscow rejects outright. As a member of the ICC, South Africa is theoretically supposed to arrest Mr. Putin if he enters its territory. A serious diplomatic dilemma for Pretoria, which has refused to condemn Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The case has taken a legal turn as South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is trying through the courts to force the government to ensure that Mr Putin will be arrested and handed over to the ICC if he sets foot in the country.
In an affidavit, Mr Ramaphosa called the DA’s request “irresponsible”. “Russia has made it clear that any arrest of its sitting president would amount to a declaration of war. It would not be consistent with our Constitution to risk engaging the country in a war with Russia,” he wrote, saying it would violate his duty to protect the country.
South Africa is seeking an exemption from ICC rules on the grounds that Mr. Putin’s arrest could threaten “the security, peace and order of the state”, Mr. Ramaphosa said in this text signed in June and originally classified confidential, before the court decided to make it public. In a recent interview with local media, South African Vice President Paul Mashatile explained that his government had tried to convince Mr. Putin not to come, with no success so far.