Putin could face arrest in Brazil if arrives per Lula’s G20 invitation

Brazilian President Lula da Silva will invite Russian President Putin to the G20 summit. Lula da Silva said this in Berlin after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on December 4.

Putin will receive an invitation to the G20 summit, and it will be up to him to decide whether to go, considering the “consequences,” Lula da Silva added. Brazil has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and, therefore, is theoretically obliged to arrest Putin under an ICC warrant if he comes to the country. 

“Maybe, maybe not … It’s a judicial decision. And a president of the republic doesn’t judge judicial decisions. Whether he [Putin] goes or not, he faces prosecution,” Lula da Silva added.

Lula da Silva also backtracked on his previous words when he promised that Brazil would not arrest the Russian president, as the country is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has “responsibility.”

It should be noted that Brazil has been presiding over the G20 since December 1. At the last G20 summit in September in India (which is not a member of the ICC), Putin did not send himself, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian president also did not attend the BRICS summit in August in South Africa, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute.

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

Putin and Lvova-Belova are suspected of committing the war crime of illegal deportation and transfer of children from the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which took place at least since February 24, 2022.