Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced .

According to a press release on South Africa’s official presidential website dated 19 July, the decision that Putin will stay at home has been agreed between the two countries.

“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the Summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by [the] Foreign Minister, Mr Sergey Lavrov,” the statement reads.

Putin’s decision not to go to Johannesburg will be a relief for South Africa, which was facing the possibility of having to arrest Putin, who is the subject of an international warrant. In March 2023 Putin was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. According to the Rome Statute, all 123 member states of the ICC are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory. South Africa is one of those 123 countries.

On 18 July, a day before Ramphosa revealed Putin would not attend, the South African leader stated in an affidavit that arresting the Russian President would “be perceived as a declaration of war by Russia” and be “inconsistent” with the country’s constitution.

To avoid arresting Putin, South Africa had considered different options to hosting the summit in Johannesburg. Pretoria proposed a virtual summit or relocating the event to China, but both ideas were rejected by other BRICS countries. Russian officials had also initially declined to send Lavrov as a substitute for Putin.

The recent news signifies the end of a tense few weeks for South African officials, who faced the decision of sticking alongside Russia, a close BRICS ally, and developing relationships with Western partners. The strained relationship between South Africa and the West stems from South Africa's refusal to denounce Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.