New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the upcoming BRICS Sumit in August in South Africa, as such a visit could potentially lead to his arrest owing to his conviction by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March this year.South Africa, as a member of the ICC, will be obliged to arrest Putin if he were to land in South Africa. On March 17, ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin for alleged war crimes, including the alleged abduction of children from Ukraine.According to Reuters, the Kremlin on Wednesday announced that Putin would instead attend the conference through a video call. His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will be at the Johannesburg summit on August 22-24 instead.The issue of whether or not Putin would attend the conference in-person has been a matter of speculation among the BRICS member states for months. The announcement from Kremlin came after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa held wide consultations on the matter with leaders from the bloc.Ramaphosa also made public on Tuesday a court filing, wherein South Africa had sought permission from the ICC not to arrest Putin, stating that such a move could result in the declaration of war and could also potentially thwart African efforts to end the war in Ukraine.Meanwhile, Russia has maintained that the ICC arrest warrant does not apply to Putin as Russia is not a member of the ICC. On the ICC charge that Putin abducted children, Russia has said that it is a “humanitarian campaign” aimed at protecting orphans and children abandoned in the war zone, and it has never concealed its programme.While South Africa says it is neutral in the Ukraine conflict, it has drawn criticism from the West for being “friendly” to Russia, which was an ally of the governing African National Congress under apartheid.There is a feeling that Putin’s no-show at the conference would make it not so ground-breaking as it was expected to be.