Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend next week’s annual BRICS summit in Brazil due to concerns over an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest in connection with alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov has confirmed. “This is due to certain difficulties in the context of the ICC requirement,” Ushakov commented. “In that context, the Brazilian government could not take a clear position that would allow our president to participate in this meeting.” Instead, the Russian leader is expected to join his BRICS colleagues via video link.
Putin has officially been a war crimes suspect since the ICC named him in a March 2023 arrest warrant over to the mass deportation of Ukrainian children. Russia stands accused of abducting and deporting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, with many victims reportedly subjected to ideological indoctrination to rob them of their Ukrainian heritage and impose a Russian national identity. These mass abductions may qualify as genocide according to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, which identifies “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” as one of five internationally recognized acts of genocide.
As a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, Brazil would be obliged to arrest Putin if he entered the country. Addressing the ICC warrant in 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva initially dismissed talk of detaining the Russian president, before backtracking and distancing himself from the issue. “If Putin decides to go to Brazil, it’s the justice system that will take the decision over whether he should be arrested, not the government or congress,” Lula stated.
Voice of Ukraine 