Will Putin give a present to The Hague on Ukraine's Independence Day?

That is why he insists on a personal visit to the BRICS summit in South Africa on August 22-24. While South Africa is begging the Russian Fuhrer to stay home - away from sin.

The South African authorities asked Russia to have Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov attend the BRICS summit instead of Putin, but Moscow refused. Vice President Paul Mashatile laments: "We understand that we are bound by the Rome Statute, but we cannot invite someone and then have them arrested. We would have been happy if Putin had not come."

"The South Africans offered three options to avoid this fate: moving the summit to China, replacing the bunker old man with Lavrov, and holding the summit in a videoconference format. All the BRICS partners decided to try their luck without changing the format of the summit."

Now the African media, citing the authorities, are talking about the Fuhrer's visit to South Africa as a fait accompli. While officially the Kremlin is still mysteriously hesitant, saying that the decision on Putin's trip has not yet been made…

Meanwhile, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan almost handed over personalized handcuffs to the African authorities in case the Fuhrer arrived: "I don't think they need my lessons. They are voluntarily a state party to the ICC, they know what the law is."

The BRICS summit is likely to become a testbed for China and Russia to try to hack the norms of international law in a single state in exchange for money and other support. This is a very interesting experiment that the whole world is likely to watch.

But you must admit that it would be symbolic if the bunker fuhrer did put on handcuffs on Ukraine's Independence Day…

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About the author. Orest Sohar, journalist, Obozrevatel editor-in-chief. 

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.