Putin will not face arrest if he attends G20 Summit in Rio, says Brazil’s Lula

The Brazilian government has no intention of arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin should he attend next year’s G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Sunday in comments reported by Reuters.

“I believe that Putin can go easily to Brazil," Lula said, adding: "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 assurance comes despite the fact that as a signatory to the Rome Statute, Brazil is legally compelled to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrest warrants for both Putin and his Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, in March for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

To mark the end of the G20 summit in Delhi on Saturday, a joint declaration was issued that omitted any direct criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, it did call for the implementation of all clauses outlined in the Black Sea grain deal, an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export its grain from its blockaded sea ports, and also stressed that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”.