The president of the aggressor country of Russia, Vladimir Putin, became an international exile. This was stated by the spokesman of the US State Department Matthew Miller at a briefing on July 19, the text version was published by the press service of the US State Department.
According to Miller, one of the many factors that made the war against Ukraine a strategic failure for Russia is its sharp decline in prestige in the world.
"And there is no better example, no better illustration of its authority, which has greatly declined in the world, than the fact that the president of Russia, President Putin, now has a problem leaving his borders. He is an international exile who can barely leave his borders for fear of arrest." said the spokesman of the State Department.
It will be recalled that on March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of illegally deporting children from the occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. Now Putin has the official status of a suspect, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine noted.
Kremlin Speaker Dmytro Peskov, commenting on the ICJ's decision, said that the Kremlin "considers the very approach to the issue to be outrageous and unacceptable." However, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said on March 17 that Putin could stand trial, despite Moscow's arguments that Russia does not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
South Africa invited Putin to the 15th BRICS economic summit, which will be held in August. South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute and should arrest Putin if he comes there. This, in particular, was stated by some officials of this country. However, Ramaphosa has been trying to find a possible solution for several months, The Moscow Times reported. The media reported that the country was negotiating with Russian counterparts to have Putin participate in the summit via Zoom to avoid the need for arrest.
On July 19, the South African president's website announced that Putin will be replaced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the BRICS summit in South Africa.
In 2015, South Africa already refused to execute the ICC warrant for the arrest of the then president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, when he was at the African Union summit in the country. The former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, offered to withdraw from the ISS in 2016, but this plan was later abandoned, Bloomberg recalled.
