Russia’s Putin says presence at G20 in Brazil will ‘wreck’ summit
Al Jazeera
President says ICC warrant could be a distraction, but downplays risk of arrest given ‘warm’ relations with Brazil.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will not attend next month’s G20 summit in Brazil while downplaying the risk of his arrest under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
Putin said on Friday that his presence would “wreck” the summit, with “conversations” likely to revolve around the ICC warrant issued last year over his alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Ukraine has urged Brazil, a member state of the ICC, to arrest Putin if he travels there for the event scheduled for November 18-19.
However, Putin dismissed the threat, saying Russia could sign a bilateral agreement with Brazil to bypass the ICC’s arrest warrant.
“Decisions of this kind are very easy to circumvent, it is enough to sign an intergovernmental agreement and that’s it. The jurisdiction of the ICC will be limited,” he said, alluding to his “very warm, good relations” with Brazil.
