Malema assures Putin he has his back in SA

EFF leader vows to protect Russian leader from ICC, which intends to enforce his arrest should he visit this country for BRICS summit

EFF leader Julius Malema has vowed to protect Russian President Vladimir Putin against a recent warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which intends to force South Africa to arrest him should he step into the country.

This past week, the ICC, which South Africa is a signatory to, issued a warrant of arrest for Putin for allegedly committing war crimes in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

With South Africa set to host the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China at the 15th BRICS Summit from August 22 to 24, speculation has been rife as to the country’s response to the possibility of being forced to enforce this warrant of arrest should the Russian president travel to the country for this summit.

South Africa was caught up in a similar situation in 2015 when it did not arrest former president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, while he was attending the AU summit in Johannesburg.

Political parties went to court to challenge the government for not arresting Al-Bashir, who was later toppled in his country.

However, Malema, who addressed the media on its national shutdown at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg, said that he would escort Putin himself to ensure he does not get arrested in the country. He said that many Western leaders committed war crimes but were never arrested or detained for them, calling this Western hypocrisy at its worst. “To the ICC, we say Putin is welcome here. No one is going to arrest Putin. If need be, we will go and fetch Putin from the airport to his meeting. He will address and finish all his meetings, and we will take him back to the airport. We are not going to be told by these hypocrites of the ICC who know the real violators of human rights and know the murderers of this world,” the Red Berets leader said.

The BRICS group brings together 3.2 billion people. After the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement, BRICS is among the largest bloc of countries by total population.

According to an online publication, Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Co-operation has criticised the ICC for this warrant of arrest.

“We had hoped that other forms of warrants would be issued by the ICC because there are many countries and leaders who have practised very serious abuses in situations of conflict but they remain unscathed in terms of the ICC,” Pandor told the online publication after a meeting with her Sri Lankan counterpart in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Star yesterday, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations, Clayson Monyela, said that it was presumptuous and immature for people to speculate on whether Putin would make an appearance in South Africa for the upcoming BRICS summit.

Monyela said that the Kremlin has not communicated who would be coming to the country for the summit or whether it would be virtual or held in person, adding that even the ICC has not written to South Africa in its bid to try to enforce the warrant of arrest.

“First things first, South Africa has not received any communication from the ICC to arrest Putin. It is therefore presumptuous and immature for the media to speculate on whether Putin will visit South Africa for the BRICS Summit.

“For all we know, the summit could be hybrid, which means it can be both in person and virtual. As such, he may just decide to only appear virtually or not come at all because, as you might know, heads of state do not just travel. They announce their travel schedule ahead of time. For us to be asked to comment on this matter is a bit too presumptuous, to say the least,” Monyela said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said while they noted the warrant issued by the ICC, the country has maintained that the conflict in Ukraine can be resolved through peaceful means.

Magwenya said that between now and the summit, it would be in touch with all key stakeholders.

“With respect to the ICC, we note the report on the warrant of arrest that it has issued against President Putin.

“It remains South Africa’s commitment and a very strong desire that the conflict in the Ukraine be resolved peacefully through negotiations.

“We as a government are cognisant of our legal obligation.

“However, between now and the summit, we will remain engaged with relevant stakeholders with respect to the summit and other related issues,” said Magwenya.

ANY attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Kremlin chief would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, his ally Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant last week accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that the ICC, which countries including Russia, China and the US do not recognise, was a “legal nonentity” that had never done anything significant.

Any attempt to detain Putin, though, would be a declaration of war, said Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairperson of Putin’s powerful security council.

“Let’s imagine – obviously this situation which will never be realised – but nevertheless let’s imagine that it was realised: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said. “What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. “And in that case, all our assets – all our missiles et cetera – would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor’s office.”

The Kremlin says the ICC arrest warrant is an outrageously partisan decision, but meaningless with respect to Russia. Russian officials deny war crimes in Ukraine and say the West has ignored what it says are Ukrainian war crimes. Relations with the West, Medvedev said, were probably at the worst point ever.

As president from 2008 to 2012, Medvedev cast himself as a pro-Western reformer. Since the war, though, he has turned into one of the most publicly hawkish Russian officials, insulting Western leaders and delivering a series of nuclear warnings.

Nuclear risks had risen, he said. “Every day’s delivery of foreign weapons to Ukraine brings closer the nuclear apocalypse,” Medvedev said.

After the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, he said, the West had considered itself the boss of Russia but Putin had put an end to that.

“They were very offended,” Medvedev said, adding that the West disliked the independence of Russia and China.

He said the West now wanted to crack Russia apart into a host of weaker states and steal its vast natural resources.

“Ukraine is part of Russia,” Medvedev said, adding that almost all of modern-day Ukraine had been part of the Russian empire. Russia recognised Ukraine’s post-1991 sovereignty and borders in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

Medvedev said ties with the West would one day improve, though he said it would take a long time.

“I believe that sooner or later the situation will stabilise.”