2023-07-19 20:37:20
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) before a meeting with a delegation of African leaders at Constantine Palace in Strelna near St Petersburg on June 17 2023. RAMIL SITDIKOV / AFP
After months of speculation, South Africa and Russia have finally put an end to the psychodrama that haunted Pretoria ahead of the BRICS (acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, which is due to take place from August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg. “By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit”, announced the South African presidency in a statement on Wednesday, July 19. The spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, for his part, indicated that Mr. Putin would take part virtually, which amounted, according to him, to “full participation”. In Johannesburg, Russia will be represented by its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
The case has embarrassed South Africa since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant in March for Vladimir Putin, a war crime suspect in the deportation of Ukrainian children. to Russia. A signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa is required to apply the decisions of the ICC, which theoretically obliges it to arrest the Russian president if he sets foot on its soil.
But the South African authorities were torn between their international commitments and their proximity to Moscow. “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.”, also defended the South African head of state, Cyril Ramaphosa, in a sworn statement to justice in June. The court had been seized by the country’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which was seeking to ensure the arrest of Vladimir Putin if he came to the country.
” Two weights, two measures “
On several occasions in recent months, the African National Congress, the party in power in South Africa since the end of apartheid, had on the contrary made it known that Vladimir Putin would be welcome if it was up to him. For many years, the party has denounced the ” Two weights, two measures “ of the ICC, whom he criticizes in particular for having never launched proceedings against American President George W. Bush or British Prime Minister Tony Blair for having waged the war in Iraq.
In 2015, South African authorities refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The government then explained that the immunity of a head of state in office prohibited him from proceeding to his arrest. Disavowed by a South African court, the authorities had finally exfiltrated the Sudanese president in a hurry. This precedent made it difficult to reproduce such acrobatics with Vladimir Putin.
Officially “unaligned” Faced with the conflict in Ukraine, South Africa has never ceased to increase its attention towards Moscow since the start of the war, to the great dismay of its Western partners. The organization in South Africa of joint military exercises with Russia on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has particularly irritated Western chancelleries.
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After having swept away criticism for a long time, South Africa has become more moderate since the United States has raised its tone. In May, the US ambassador to South Africa accused the country of supplying arms to Russia. Despite Pretoria’s denials, the threat of economic sanctions worries the authorities as the South African currency unscrews.
“As if you were inviting a friend”
Since these passes of arms, South Africa has taken the lead in an attempt to mediate African peace between Ukraine and Russia. During a trip to kyiv, then Moscow, in June, President Cyril Ramaphosa for the first time described « guerre » the conflict between the two countries. More recently, the authorities, who had for a time considered amending the law to allow the Russian president to travel to South Africa, finally multiplied the signals indicating that they were seeking by all means to avoid the arrival of Vladimir Putin.
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Appointed to head an inter-ministerial committee responsible for studying the country’s options, the South African Vice-President, Paul Mashatile, confirmed a few days ago that three avenues had been examined: proposing to Vladimir Putin have it represented, try to move the summit to another BRICS country or organize a virtual summit. None of these options had worked so far. Unable to resolve to withdraw its invitation to the Russian president, South Africa had no other choice but to manage to convince him to give up the trip.
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“Of course, we can’t stop it. It’s practically like inviting a friend over to your house and then shutting them down. The best solution for us is that he does not come”explained the vice-president to a South African media on July 14, before specifying: “The Russians are not happy. They want him to come. » Despite this apparent insistence, several specialists in relations between South Africa and Russia have doubted for several months that the Russian president will travel. A skepticism reinforced by the abortive mutiny of the Wagner Group at the end of June.
“For me, it was always obvious that he would not come, it is not a surprise. Before the situation with Wagner, I already thought that he would not have the courage to get out of Russia. Since then, we have all seen that he does not have control of his own country, the internal situation does not allow him to travel”rejoiced the Ukrainian ambassador in South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, questioned by The world.
President Ramaphosa said to himself “convinced that the summit will be[it] a success “. Discussions are expected to focus on the question of admitting new members to the alliance of emerging countries and alternatives to trade in dollars.
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