The Russian President, Vladimir Putinunder an arrest order from the International Criminal Court (ICC) related to the war in Ukraine, said, this Friday the 18th, that he will not participate in the Summit of G20 in Brazil on November 18th and 19th so as not to “disturb” her.
“We fully understand that whether including or excluding the TPI factor, the entire discussion will only be about that. And that would disrupt the work of the G20. For what? We are adults!” declared the Russian president during a meeting with foreign journalists.
If he came to Brazil, Putin would run the risk of being arrested, since the country is a signatory to the ICC constitution. Lula (PT) even statedrecently, that he would not arrest the Russian, but he backed down shortly afterwards, claiming that the decision should be made by the courts and not political.
Behind the scenes, the Brazilian government continued to work so that the Russian president would have guarantees to come to the country without being arrested, as shown CartaCapital in April. The action, however, did not prosper.
Mauro Vieira, Brazilian chancellor, more recently reinforced the position issued by Lula on the caseclaiming that, from a political point of view, he could not prevent any court order in the case.
“There could be that. I cannot limit, restrict a judge, nor imagine or guess what they will do. There could be, so many other things could happen”, he declared, during an interview with CNN Brazilshown last Sunday the 13th.
It is ‘tradition’ that heads of state have a certain immunity during international commitments, but Putin has avoided leaving Russia after the order issued by the ICC. Until now, he has limited his travels to countries that do not recognize the court as a legitimate decision-making body and that, therefore, would not pursue the arrest warrant.
The option to restrict his international agenda meant that he did not attend, for example, the last two G20 meetings, which took place in Indonesia and India after the start of the war in Ukraine.
(With AFP)
