Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro next year.
Lula, speaking to the Firstpost news show at the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Delhi on Saturday, said Putin would be invited to next year’s event.
He added that he himself planned to attend a BRICS bloc of developing nations meeting due in Russia before the Rio meeting.
“I believe that Putin can go easily to Brazil,” Lula said. “What I can say to you is that if I’m president of Brazil, and he comes to Brazil, there’s no way he will be arrested.”
The statement comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
How is he a “russophile”? Because he helped elevate BRICS to the world stage and called for the end of the war in Ukraine? Do you think when when wars end, the national lines stay exactly where they were during the war? Do you think that all the countries that are invited to attend G7 are buddy-buddy and have never had poor diplomatic relationships?
Smaller countries have to play both sides. Just like Egypt does. They court both sides to get the best deal. That’s just a function of their position in the world pecking order.
Playing both sides is a far cry from being a Russophile.
No. To convincingly play both sides you have to look like a anglophile and a Russophole, just at different times.
Ok, so then please explain how he’s a russophile. You still haven’t done that.
I didn’t say he was. A different poster said that. I just said he has to pretend to play both sides to get the best deal for his country in international affairs.
Unless I’m mistaken, you’re defending the person calling Lula a russophile.
I did not say anything you just quoted. Please check the record.
I did say the leader of Brazil, in the good faith execution of his job, will have to look like he supports Russia sometimes. And sometimes he’ll have to look like he supports the USA. That’s his job. So we can’t determine what his real loyalties are
Lula, first and foremost, has loyalty to Brazil. Geopolitics is like a game of cards where everyone is cheating. He’s also significantly to the left (somewhere between socdem and socialist), so it’s fair to say that he doesn’t want to participate in that game and would rather not be involved with the neo-imperialist nations of NATO and G7, hence BRICS to stand up for the Global South. He’s not going to arrest Putin for a few reasons, mainly because heads of state are diplomats and there will be several bad implications when arresting foreign diplomats without committing a crime on foreign soil. Most countries don’t like the US or NATO. Making US-centric political analyses on foreign politics is a colonial mindset, so consider learning more about foreign leaders and their political outlooks.