Vladimir Putin is going through a lonely summer, holed up in his Kremlin bunker. Targeted weekly by Ukrainian drones and once threatened by his own mercenary troops, the president oversees the great purge of Russian elites, which allegedly reached General Sergei “Armageddon” Surovikin, suspected of being involved in the coup. missed Wagner and arrested, according to the local press.
The hermit of the Kremlin also finds himself in need of allies on the international scene. Already, last January, his meager New Year’s greetings ceremony was addressed to only a handful of leaders: Xi Jinping in China, Erdogan in Turkey, Assad in Syria, Maduro in Venezuela and Modi in India. Since then, the Turkish President has agreed at the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, when only a few African leaders deigned to visit the Russian president in July, for a Russia-Africa summit deprived of its main headliners and living in the shadow of Wagner’s mercenaries.
Fear of international justice, despite everything
Symbol of this isolation, at the end of August, the Russian president must attend the Brics summit from Moscow, by videoconference. Pursued by the International Criminal Court, he risks arrest if he goes to a country that has signed the Rome Statute, which is the case of South Africa.
International justice, often decried for its lack of efficiency, scores an important point against Russian terror. “This international arrest warrant is a tremendous step forward for Ukraine and for the idea of justice in general, rejoices the Ukrainian jurist Roman Nekoliak. Of course, Putin will not sleep in prison anytime soon, but he fears this scenario and adapts its agenda according to this fear. And if Europe has been able to gain its independence from Moscow, the rest of the world can follow.”
He who dreamed of conquering new lands and uniting the “Global South” against the West finds himself locked in his palace. Alone in front of his screen.