South Africa must do the "right thing"and abide by international law if Russian President Vladimir Putin personally attends the BRICS summit in Johannesburg next month.
I don't think that there is any chance of him being arrested.
Putin will not travel to South Africa if he isn't given assurances of immunity.
It's possible that South Africa might not grant immunity, but given that in the past, leaders that the ICC has been after have been able to travel to ICC member states, my guess is against them withholding it.
But, either way, I can't imagine that either (a) South Africa would guarantee immunity and then violate it or that (b) Putin would enter South Africa without such a guarantee, and one of those would be required for him to actually be arrested. So Putin being arrested is really not going to be in the cards. His non-presence might be.
Would his failure to show up to BRICS further damage his image with his own people? Right now it seems that he’s holding on to the illusions he’s created for them by his fingernails, given that Prigozhin is able to enter and leave Russia freely and pick up money, gun collections, personal effects, etc. without repercussions. Does Putin need to make personal appearances to show that HE can still come and go?
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