Putin’s absence at the summit has been announced by the South African presidency, ending months of speculation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday.

“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr [Sergey] Lavrov,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement.

South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes, it would theoretically be required to arrest him if he were to attend.

The dilemma led to intense debate in South Africa and the West about whether the warrant would be executed, given South Africa’s stance of neutrality on the war in Ukraine and Pretoria’s historic ties to the Kremlin.

In 2015, South Africa also failed to arrest then-Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who was also the subject of an ICC warrant.

The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend the summit, the presidency said.

BRICS, a bloc of emerging economic powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China was formed in 2019 as BRIC. South Africa joined the following year after an invitation from China, expanding the group.

Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina have also applied to join the bloc.

mediabiasfactcheck.com/al-jazeera/

  • @[email protected]English
    1•1 year ago

    The claim was that Russia’s economy is on the verge of collapse. The data presented shows that a longer forecast predicts a strengthening economy for Russia and a worsening economy for the US. You don’t have to like Russia, but the data does not support the idea that it’s about to collapse. If it does end up collapsing, it will be a statistical anomaly.

    This does not affect the overall percentage growth in the period being worse for Russia then the US. Russia invaded a country with a powerful military just after a global pandemic, and soon faced economic sanctions from the then-biggest economic bloc in the world. The fact that Russia’s economy took a hit is not in question. The question is whether the hit was enough to collapse it’s economy. Apparently, the answer is, no.

    • @mea_rahEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      I have never claimed that russian economy is about to collapse. In fact if you scroll up the thread I actually said that I don’t think it will. So I’m not sure why you felt like disputing that in reply to my comment.

      If it does end up collapsing, it will be a statistical anomaly.

      I have lived through one such collapse already. Russia collapsing is statistical inevitability. 😂(this is joke BTW, you don’t need to dispute it)

      • @[email protected]English
        1•1 year ago

        The comment to which Carcosa initially responded states:

        Russia is … on the verge of collapse.

        Hence:

        The claim was that Russia’s economy is on the verge of collapse. The data presented shows that a longer forecast predicts a strengthening economy for Russia … the data does not support the idea that it’s about to collapse. …

        • @mea_rahEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          Right, so we can agree that neither of us claims that russia is on the verge of economic collapse.