President Vladimir Putin might be forced to miss a second successive G20 summit after the host of next year’s global get-together backtracked on a pledge that the Russian leader would not face arrest there for war crimes. Putin decided against attending the G20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend because of fears that he might be arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court—even though India is not an ICC signatory. The next G20 summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro next July, but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told an Indian news agency there was “no way” Putin would face arrest on Brazilian territory for Russian crimes in Ukraine. On Monday, he appeared to change his mind, saying it would be left up to the judiciary to decide. He did, however, question why Brazil was a signatory to the ICC when so many powerful nations were not, Al Jazeera reported. “I want to know why we are members but not the United States, not Russia, not India, not China,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m going to leave the court. I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory.”
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