Putin's Brazil dilemma: ICC warrant looms over G20 summit
On Thursday, the U.S. Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaack, warned Putin against travelling to Brazil. "If I were a lawyer advising Putin, I would tell him to be very cautious when travelling to countries that belong to the International Criminal Court," she stated.
In mid-November, a G20 summit is scheduled to begin in Brazil. Russia is one of the member countries of this group. Will Putin decide to personally attend the summit? Let's recall that in March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued a warrant for his arrest. Meanwhile, Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which led to the establishment of the ICC.
"If I were Putin, if I were a lawyer advising Putin, I would tell him to be very careful about traveling to ICC member-states, because they have independent judicial actors, they have independent police and lawyers, they have active civil society members – can utilize the legal system in order to potentially compel it to act by virtue of those cooperation duties under the Rome Statute," Van Schaack said during an online press briefing when asked about Putin's potential November trip to Brazil.
She stated that it is still uncertain whether Putin will actually go to Brazil. She pointed out that in the past, he has opted not to travel to other countries belonging to the ICC, including a recent occasion for the Mexican president's inauguration and the BRICS summit in South Africa.
Let's recall that a year ago, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview for the Indian portal Firstpost that Putin will be invited to the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
Lula expressed confidence that Putin could visit Brazil without risk, stating that if he were the country's president and Putin came to Brazil, there would be no chance of him being detained. He emphasized the importance of respecting Brazil's sovereignty.
