Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend an economic summit in South Africa next month and the country is desperately trying to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic fallout over his international arrest warrant, South Africa’s deputy president said in an interview with a news website on Friday. As a signatory to the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin on an indictment the court issued against the Russian leader in March for war crimes involving the abduction of children from Ukraine.

  • @dystop
    link
    81 year ago

    Yes, it’s not so much a legally mandatory thing as it is the optics of hosting a wanted man and a war criminal.