Despite an arrest warrant being issued for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a minority opposition party in South Africa, has announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin is welcome to visit Pretoria.
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is being blamed on Mr. Putin for war crimes, including the kidnapping of Ukrainian children. South Africa is a signatory to the ICC.
At the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) conference in August, Mr. Putin is expected to visit South Africa.
On Thursday, Julius Malema, the head of the EFF, declared that no one would detain Vladimir Putin while he was in South Africa, a nation where Russia “played a big role to support the struggle for independence.”
The ICC, which Mr. Malema called out for its “hypocrisy,” should not be allowed to push the South African government, he added.
Despite criticism from the West, South Africa maintains close diplomatic ties with Moscow. Off the coast of South Africa, its navy participated in joint maneuvers with Russian forces last month. Also, it didn’t vote in UN votes that denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The South African government came under fire in 2015 for allowing Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan at the time, to leave the country despite an ICC arrest warrant.
