After the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) issued an arrest warrant final month for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a video re-emerged on social media claiming to point out him arriving in South Africa for an official go to. However that is false: the video was filmed in July 2018 forward of the tenth summit of the BRICS group, which South Africa hosted. AFP Truth Test beforehand debunked the same declare concerning the video a couple of months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“In the meantime President Putin landed in South Africa yesterday whereas the USA Vice President Harris Kamala lands in Zambia immediately. Attention-grabbing Africa geopolitics (sic),” reads a Facebook publish printed on March 31, 2023.
The publish, which has amassed greater than 4,700 shares, features a TikTok video exhibiting Putin and his delegation disembarking from a airplane.
The caption on the TikTok video reads: “Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in South Africa. ICC fails to arrest Putin.”
The state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) ticker is seen on the backside of the video.
The identical video was additionally printed on TikTok here, with the same caption claiming: “It’s a slap to the USA and ICC as Vladimir Putin arrives in South Africa for BRICS summit.”
BRICS is an alliance between the rising nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, who will host (archived here) the fifteenth group summit from August 22-24, 2023 within the coastal metropolis of Durban.
Putin arrest warrant
All eyes shall be on Putin to see if he attends the summit after the ICC introduced on March 17, 2023, that it had issued an arrest warrant for him (archived here), citing the alleged “illegal deportation” of Ukranian kids amid Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour.
In 2015, South Africa failed to comply (archived here) with the cooperation request by the ICC to arrest former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir when he attended an African Union summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is among the many international locations that has refused to condemn (archived here) Russia’s struggle in Ukraine, saying it needs to remain impartial and prefers dialogue to finish the battle.
Towards this backdrop, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited (archived here) three African international locations – Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia – on the find yourself March, earlier than returning to the US on April 2.
Nevertheless, the declare that Putin lately arrived in South Africa in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant is fake.
Outdated footage
AFP Truth Test debunked the same declare associated to the video in July 2022, just some months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
On the time, the claim accompanying the video merely said: “President Putin in South Africa.”
AFP Truth Test established the clip got here from an genuine information bulletin produced by SABC a number of years earlier — in 2018. The “Breaking Information” headline within the bulletin stated Putin “arrives in SA for the tenth BRICS summit”.
The tenth BRICs summit was held (archived here) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2018. Putin attended together with the leaders of the opposite member international locations.
POOL / Mike HUTCHINGS
SABC uploaded a three-minute video of its unique broadcast to YouTube (archived here) on July 26, 2018.
Based on the Kremlin, Putin held a meeting (archived here) through teleconferencing with the members of his nation’s safety council on March 31, 2023 — the day that the newest Fb publish was printed.
And on March 30, 2023, when it was claimed that he landed in South Africa, Putin took half in a ceremony to open (archived here) new pharmaceutical services in Kaliningrad, Saransk and St Petersburg, additionally through videoconference.
Though his whereabouts weren’t disclosed by the Kremlin throughout these two calls, Putin’s final recognized public go to outdoors of Russia was on March 19 when he made a surprise trip (archived here) to Mariupol, a port metropolis in Ukraine that Moscow captured after a protracted siege final yr.
South Africa’s ties with Russia date again many years when the Kremlin backed the nation’s ruling celebration Africa Nationwide Congress in its battle towards apartheid.