South Africa to roll out red carpet for Putin: Russian dictator is 'planning to attend' BRICS bloc summit in the country despite an international warrant for his arrest over Ukraine war
South Africa are set to welcome Russian despot Vladimir Putin (pictured with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019) despite an international warrant against him
In the latest indication of South Africa's deepening ties with Moscow, Pretoria are set to welcome the Russian president for the BRICS bloc summit in August. Pictured: Putin and Ramaphosa in 2019
The ICC called for Putin's arrest on March 17 and accused the despot of committing war crimes by abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families.
South Africa has so far refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while it has not shown support for sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Considered one of Moscow's closest allies on the continent, South Africa says it is impartial and has abstained from voting on U.N. resolutions on the war.
News of Putin's potential trip to South Africa comes after accusations were made from the United States that Pretoria covertly supplied weapons to Moscow - a move that would break with its professed neutrality.
This comes amid a visit to Moscow by Lieutenant-General Lawrence Mbatha, the chief of South Africa's army, for talks 'on combat readiness'.
Irina Filatova, professor emeritus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a leading expert on Pretoria-Moscow relations, told The Times that the visit was propaganda by Moscow to show they are not isolated by 'helpless western laws'.
She said that to be an ally of Russia, you have to show you do not accept the laws made by the West.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on that his ruling ANC party had resolved that South Africa should quit the 'unfair' International Criminal Court, which last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
'Yes, the governing party... has taken that decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC,' Ramaphosa said.
Pretoria has close ties with Moscow dating back decades to when the Kremlin supported the ANC's fight against apartheid.
The continental powerhouse has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
It is not the first time South Africa has attempted to withdraw from the ICC.
It made an attempt in 2016 following a dispute a year earlier when then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union summit. It refused to arrest him despite the then-leader facing an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes.
Earlier this year, it held a controversial joint military exercise with Russia and China, which critics cite as evidence of a tilt towards the Kremlin.
Table Mountain and Devil's Peak
Robben Island (above), the prison island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years
A family member is consoled at the scene of a deadly mass shooting where 10 of her relatives were shot dead
Police said two suspects (pictured) have been arrested over the shooting
Neighbours look at police and medics working at the scene of the shooting in Pietermaritzburg
A British couple who were targeted, kidnapped, murdered - and their remains thrown to crocodiles.
The killers of the British couple, who were brutally murdered before their bodies were fed to crocodiles, had links to ISIS
Internationally renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were in South Africa when they were targeted, kidnapped, beaten to death and then put in their sleeping bags and thrown into a river infested with the beasts.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35,were standing trial at Durban High Court.
Detectives found pamphlets relating to the Islamic State terrorist group, along with an ISIS flag, at the defendant's home.
Del Vecchio, who converted to Islam, and Patel, whose father is a Muslim cleric, were both included on South African security force's watchlists.
Messages on their phone showed the suspects discussed plans to 'kill the kuffar [non-believer], to destroy infrastructure and put fear in the heart of the kuffar'. The suspects also described Rod and Rachael Saunders as 'prey' who were ripe for a 'hunt'.
Around two percent of the population in South African is Muslim, and it has become a hot-bed of dirty money financing terrorism in southern and east Africa.
President Joe Biden shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House
Biden shakes hands with Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
Biden visiting a memorial to Nelson Mandela outside the South African embassy.
Mandela is seen during a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in June 1990
Mandela in June 1990 addresses the United Nations, urging the U.N. to maintain sanctions against South Africa until apartheid was abolished
Biden and Ramaphosa are seen inside the Oval Office
Ramaphosa has been accused of stealing millions and hiding it. He insists the money is private
Bystanders wait behind a police tape marking the scene of a mass shooting in Gqeberha, South Africa
Shootings are common in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest murder rates with around 20,000 people killed every year.
South African police are pictured rounding up members of an illegal mining camp near Krugersdorp following a horrifying gang rape of eight women last week
Eight models were gang raped at gunpoint by an armed gang as they shot a gospel music video in South Africa
The gang rape has shocked a nation which already has some of the highest crime rates and the third highest rate of rape in the world
South Africa has the third highest crime rate in the world, according to World Population Review, having 'notably high rates of assaults, rape, homicides, and other violent crimes.'
South Africa is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with latest crime statistics showing 67 murders a day and 115 rapes a day, although the true figures are believed to be much higher.
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