Putin Says His Presence at G-20 in Brazil Would Disrupt Summit

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin offered a clear hint that he won’t go to the Group of 20 in Brazil next month, saying his presence would disrupt the summit after an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

“I understand that even if we exclude the ICC, this will be the only topic of conversation,” Putin said Friday at a meeting with media representatives from BRICS states. “We will essentially disrupt the work of the G-20.”

As a member state of the ICC, Brazil would be obliged to arrest Putin under the warrant issued in March last year. South Africa asked the Russian leader not to attend last year’s summit of BRICS states because of the warrant, though Putin traveled to Mongolia, another ICC member state, without incident last month. He skipped the G-20 summit last year in India, although it isn’t a signatory to the ICC.

While Putin didn’t explicitly rule out traveling to Brazil, he said he had “excellent” relations with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and didn’t want to put the G-20 host nation “in an awkward position.” Russia will send a high-level representative to Brazil in any case, he said.