On Tuesday, leaders of the Brics cooperation organization, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will gather for a summit in Johannesburg.
Vladimir Putin was initially supposed to attend, but has since announced that he will only attend via link. The reason is the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
– South Africa is among the countries that are part of this court. They therefore have a responsibility to perhaps even arrest Putin if he had landed there. This created a situation for South Africa that was, to put it mildly, uncomfortable, says SVT’s foreign reporter Carl Fridh Kleberg.
“No leader in the West even wants to shake hands”
The fact that Putin does not participate in the meeting is a clear example of how the president’s international status has changed in recent years. After all, BRIC is made up of countries that are considered to be relatively close to Russia. Among Western countries, the situation has changed even more radically.
As recently as 2018, Putin was in Helsinki for a meeting with then US President Donald Trump. That such a meeting would take place today is unthinkable for most.
– The relationship between Western countries and Russia was not at its best even before last year’s full-scale invasion. Especially since 2014 and the illegal annexation of Crimea. But despite that, Putin has been able to hold certain types of meetings at the highest level and has shown himself to be a statesman internationally. That possibility has shrunk considerably, says Carl Fridh Kleberg and continues:
– There is no leader in Western countries, with perhaps a single exception, who today would even take Putin by the hand.
What does Putin’s everyday life look like in isolation from the outside world? Hear Carl Fridh Kleberg tell the story in the clip.