From top left: Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and head of the Wagner group, French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photos: AFP and Twitter @The Presidency
It appears that the South African government might finally be able to side-step the double-edged sword of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance at the Brics summit later this year in Johannesburg.
This after Putin reportedly told South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of last weekend’s Ukraine-Russia African Peace Mission that he would be willing for foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to attend the summit on his behalf.
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Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), in The Hague, over accusations that Russia unlawfully deported Ukrainian children during the Ukraine-Russia war which has been sowing death and destruction for the past 16 months.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa would be expected to arrest the Russian president when he sets foot in the country.
Department of International Relations & Co-operation (Dirco) Minister Naledi Pandor and her team have been scratching their heads as to how to circumvent the problematic situation.
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Some of the suggestions include Putin attending the summit of Brics countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — virtually or sending a representative in his place. He also suggested that the summit be moved to China as the superpower’s government was not a member of the ICC.
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A senior government official reportedly told Sunday Times that Putin is not opposed to the idea of a compromise for the Brics summit which takes place from 22 to 24 August.
“In the talks he made it clear that he doesn’t want to sabotage our summit. And, as a compromise, he would be willing to send foreign minister Lavrov to lead the Russian delegation while he remains in Moscow.”
Government insider sources also alleged that Ramaphosa used the peace mission’s visit to St Petersburg to persuade Putin not to attend the summit in person.
This was corroborated by another government official privy to the discussions.
“He [Putin] won’t come and we are not in support of moving the summit.
“What is likely to happen now is that he will send a last-minute apology, perhaps on the day he’s supposed to land, stating that he has sent the minister to represent him,” the source told the media outlet.
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Since then, two crucial developments this week could be the final nail in the coffin of the president’s in-person attendance:
Instead of crying in his silk pillow from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin would most likely be celebrating with caviar and a double vodka in his Kremlin fortress.
Not having to jump on one of his many private jets might seem like an attractive option for the wounded ego of the superpower “bully”.
Well, maybe he should consider jetting around Ramaphosa’s excessive security detail on the African Peace Mission. More than 120 security personnel and crates of combat arms excessive…
ALSO READ: Overprotected? How much Ramaphosa’s Ukraine-Russia ‘security blankie’ cost SA
On Friday evening, Russia’s de facto private military organisation, the feared Wagner group, announced on Telegram that it would invade Russia and “punish” the country’s military leaders for an alleged missile attack on the mercenaries’ base in Ukraine.
Putin said the armed mutiny was a “stab in the back” and that Prigozhin had betrayed Russia.
On Sunday, however, Wagner mercenaries were headed back to base after the disgraced Russian leader Putin agreed to allow the leader of the mercenaries to avoid treason charges and accept exile in Belarus.
ALSO READ: Wagner chief to leave Russia in deal to ease crisis
Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has reportedly informed her counterpart Pandor that Macron was interested to attend the Brics summit to pursue dialogue with the bloc’s members.
This as Ramaphosa jetted off to Paris to rub shoulders with Macron and other world leaders at the two-day Summit for a New Global Financing Pact while still basking in the glow of South Africa’s first dedicated green hydrogen fund — the SA-H2 — with the aid of the Netherlands.
With this fund, government aims to raise about R19 billion to build a pipeline of green hydrogen projects.
Pandor responded that it would be an “innovation” if Macron attended, but that it would be up to Ramaphosa as the current Brics chairperson to decide.
Colonna, however, made it clear that the leader of France — a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) member country — would not attend if Putin did.
South Africa’s apartheid-era Kremlin comrade isn’t impressed with Macron’s bid to gate-crash the summit.
“We sent a signal that, with all due respect to the prerogatives of the host country, inviting certain guests should be based on the fact that Brics is an association of states that, in principle, reject unilateral sanctions as a method of solving foreign policy problems,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said on Thursday, according to the state-owned news agency TASS.
“Considering this, the inappropriateness of the appearance of representatives of the collective West there is simply obvious,” Ryabkov added.
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