South African officials feel a legal obligation to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of the International Criminal Court if he attends a diplomatic summit, according to leaks to local press.
“We have a legal opinion that spells out the options,” a South African official told the Sunday Times, a Johannesburg-based outlet. "There is no option not to arrest Putin. If he comes here, we have to arrest him.”
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Putin drew an indictment for war crimes in Ukraine last month when ICC prosecutors and United Nations investigators issued separate findings that Russian officials have orchestrated the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. That arrest warrant puts South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a difficult position because South Africa is treaty-bound to support the ICC but will also host the BRICS summit in August — a bloc of developing countries historically dominated by Russia and China.
“The only option we have is for him to connect via Teams or Zoom from Moscow,” the unnamed official said.
That’s an undesired impediment for Putin because Russian officials have condemned the indictment as “outrageous and unacceptable” while attempting to downplay the influence of the ICC.
“For Russia, this body has fallen off the map of international judicial institutions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Roman Kashayev said Friday during an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council, per state-run Tass. "It has finally turned into an obedient instrument of Western countries.”
Ramaphosa’s likely deference to the ICC runs contrary to that narrative, at risk of Putin’s embarrassment. South Africa is a founding member of BRICS, a bloc that Russian and Chinese officials regard as a platform for challenging the influence of the United States and its allies.
"Of course, we will take part in the summit to be held in South Africa,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. "Of course, this will be preceded by our bilateral contacts with the South Africans — we will clarify their position.”
Ramaphosa has refused to enter into diplomatic disputes with Russia over the war in Ukraine, but his choices with respect to the ICC warrant are constrained by a South African court verdict in a separate case pertaining to ousted Sudanese dictator Omar Bashir. South African officials allowed him to travel freely to and from Johannesburg in 2015 despite an outstanding ICC warrant, and their refusal drew a rebuke from the judiciary.
"The decision by the South African government not [to] arrest Al-Bashir was inconsistent with South African law,” the country’s Supreme Court of Appeals ruled.
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The legal dilemma is compounded by South Africa’s desire to enjoy free trade with the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, even while flaunting political ties to Moscow. South Africa, which has abstained from U.N. General Assembly resolutions that condemned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, conducted joint military drills with Russia and China that coincided with the anniversary of Putin’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine.
“That military drill with Russia made us look like we were giving the international community a middle finger,” another senior government official told the Sunday Times. “Of course, the main concern is that in the U.S. we started hearing voices that South Africa should be kicked out of [AGOA]. If we were kicked out, it would have a massive impact on our economy. Our trade with Russia is extremely small compared with our U.S. trade.”