Russian President Vladimir Putin said this Friday (20) that he does not intend to participate in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November. “The G20 is a useful forum in general, when it is not politicized. My possible departure would harm the work,” said the leader at a press conference.
He added, however, that his country will be present at the event, which brings together representatives of the 20 largest economies in the world every year. “Let’s find who will represent Russia.”
The possibility of the leader’s arrival was a highly sensitive topic. Putin is the target of an arrest warrant from the ICC (International Criminal Court). As Brazil is a signatory to the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, the Russian president could be detained if he attended the event.
Putin, however, minimized the risk of being arrested when announcing his embezzlement this Friday. He said Russia could, for example, sign a bilateral agreement with Brasilia to circumvent the ICC order if necessary. “We have a good relationship with Brazil.”
In fact, as revealed by the Sheet In March of this year, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sought alternatives to try to avoid this embarrassment, and produced a legal opinion capable of circumventing the ICC’s determination in the event of the Russian president’s eventual arrival in Brazil.
Although the text did not quote Putin directly, it argued that agreements creating international courts such as the ICC should only take effect between signatory countries. As this is not the case in Russia, its president would not be under the court’s jurisdiction when traveling to Brazil.
The opinion, which was submitted in November last year to the UN International Law Commission, has no practical effect. Nor would it guarantee that Brazil would be free from ICC censure if it ignored a court order. But it indicated an official opinion of the Lula government, that Putin’s immunity from jurisdiction should protect him from the reach of the court if the trip were to take place.
The announcement of Putin’s absence from the summit comes in the same week that Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andri Kostin, urged Brazil to execute the arrest warrant if the leader came.
“I would like to reiterate that it is an obligation of the Brazilian authorities, as a member state of the Rome Statute, to arrest him,” said the Ukrainian on Monday (14). “I sincerely hope that Brazil arrests him, reaffirming its status as a democracy and a country governed by the rule of law.”
The ICC issued the arrest warrant for Putin in March last year. He is accused of failing to exercise adequate control over his civilian and military subordinates in the case of illegal deportations of children from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine and thus being partially responsible for a war crime.
In addition to the president, five other Russian government officials are also named in the lawsuit, including the commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, former Defense Minister Serguei Choigu, and military men Viktor Sokolov and Serguei Kobilach.
Putin’s eventual trip to the summit in Rio sparked controversy even before Brazil began its term as president of the G20. In September 2023, when he participated in the forum meeting in New Delhi, Lula stated that his Russian counterpart did not run the risk of being arrested if he decided to come to the next edition of the event.
“If I am president of Brazil, and if he (Putin) comes to Brazil, there is no way he will be arrested. No, he will not be arrested. No one will disrespect Brazil”, he said at the time.
Days later, the PT member backtracked and stated that the decision on a possible arrest would be up to the Judiciary. “If Putin decides to go to Brazil, who makes the decision whether to arrest him or not is the Justice Department, not the government or the National Congress.”
Even if it happened, this would not be the Russian’s first visit to a country that was supposed to execute the ICC’s arrest order. The leader traveled to Mongolia, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute, last month, amid criticism from Ukraine.
