Putin Will Not Attend BRICS Summit In South Africa

The South African Presidency has issued a statement confirming that, "by mutual agreement," President Putin will not attend the August 22-24 BRICS Summit in South Africa. Statement

• A short time ago, Kremlin pushed back against reports that Moscow warned South Africa against arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin, in accordance with an ICC arrest warrant. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, however, that "everyone understood" what "an attempt to infringe on Putin's rights would mean."
• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa saidthat arresting Putin would risk war with Russia and requested the ICC waive the warrant should Putin travel to South Africa for the summit.
• Peskov also responded to reports that the US may enforce sanctions on Kyrgyzstan for providing Russia a pipeline of sanctioned military hardware, saying: "We intend to further develop bilateral relations with Kyrgyzstan, which we value very highly, as well as all formats of our joint integration."
• The Washington Post reportsthat, "Kyrgyzstan witnessed a striking expansion of import-export companies that do business mainly with Russia [with] firms profiting from soaring sales of sanctioned Chinese and European goods."