If Russian leader Vladimir Putin takes part in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next year, he will not be arrested, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
The Russian president does not attend this year’s gathering in New Delhi because of the risk of political opprobrium and criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant. Both India and Brazil are members of the ICC that accuses the Russian president of responsibility for war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.
The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves. The tribunal is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and leads high-profile investigations into prominent suspects.
The Kremlin claims the warrant against Putin is “valid.”
Instead of Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has visited recent international meetings and has gone to New Delhi. However, Lula, speaking to Indian news network Firstpost on Saturday, said Putin would be invited to next year’s event, to be hosted by Brazil. He said:
“We enjoy peace and we like to treat people well. So I believe Putin can go easily to Brazil. If I’m the president of Brazil and if he comes to Brazil, there’s no way that he will be arrested.”
Lula also said that he would attend a BRICS bloc of developing nations summit in Russia next year.
On Saturday, the G20 nations adopted a declaration that avoided condemning Moscow for the war in Ukraine but called on all states to refrain from using force to grab territory.
