Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with Firstpost that Putin will not be arrested if he comes to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2024.
"I believe that Putin can easily go to Brazil. If I am the president of Brazil and he comes to Brazil, he will not be arrested under any circumstances," he said.
Putin did not go to this yearʼs G20 summit, which is taking place in India on September 9-10.
- On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian childrenʼs ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of illegally deporting children from the occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. Currently, Putin has the official status of a suspect, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine noted.
- Kremlin Speaker Dmytro Peskov, commenting on the ICJʼs decision, said that the Kremlin "considers the very approach to the issue to be outrageous and unacceptable." However, on March 17, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said that Putin would appear in court, despite Moscowʼs arguments that Russia does not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
- South Africa was invited by Putin to the 15th BRICS economic summit in August. This country has ratified the Rome Statute and should have arrested Putin in the event of his arrival, but South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been trying to find a possible solution for several months. The media reported that the country was negotiating with the Russians to have Putin participate in the summit via Zoom to avoid the need for arrest.
- On July 19, the South African presidentʼs website reported that Putin will be replaced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the BRICS summit in South Africa.