President Vladimir Putin, who has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), will not attend next month’s BRICS summit in South Africa.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed the decision to hold next month’s BRICS summit in a face-to-face format, according to a statement issued by the country’s presidency.

“The summit will be attended by the leaders of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa by mutual agreement,” the statement read, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending and will be replaced by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Earlier, South Africa had invited Putin to attend the BRICS summit it is hosting in Johannesburg next month from April 22-24.

Putin was issued an arrest warrant by the ICC in March for war crimes, including the illegal displacement of children from occupied Ukraine.

As South Africa is a member of the ICC, 먹튀검증토토사이트 it is obligated to cooperate in the execution of the arrest warrant if Putin visits the country, so there was interest in whether Putin would visit South Africa.