Kremlin Says Vladimir Putin Won’t Attend South Africa Summit Due to Threat of War Crimes Arrest

The awkward drama over if South Africa would fulfill its treaty obligations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by arresting Russian leader Vladimir Putin during the upcoming BRICS summit in Johannesburg was apparently resolved on Tuesday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared that arresting Putin would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against Russia, and that would be “inconsistent” with the South African constitution, but the Kremlin then announced Putin would not attend the BRICS summit anyway.

The Putin dilemma was so difficult for Ramaphosa that South Africa might have backed out of hosting the BRICS summit, passing the duty along to another member, probably China. BRICS is an economic bloc whose members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.