Putin's BRICS dream, Ramaphosa's nuke nightmare, Wagner's new leader and the long war...

Russian President Vladimir Putin “really wanted to show up” at the BRICS Summit in South Africa next month - “and he really wanted to show the world that the rules imposed by the international community, as he perceives it, don't apply to him because that's what he does; he always gets away with things that are somewhere written or deemed undoable”. These are the words of the Czech Deputy Minister of Defence, Dr. Tomáš Kopečný, who is also the Governmental Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. He speaks to BizNews following the decision by Putin not to attend the summit next month to avoid getting arrested in terms of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. Dr. Kopečný says there was absolutely no chance that Russia would have gone to war with South Africa if Putin were arrested - as was argued by President Cyril Ramaphosa - because 96% of all its troops are in Ukraine, and they even use equipment that countries from Africa sent to Russia for maintenance overhauls. Dr. Kopečný also speaks to BizNews about the Wagner Group’s renewed focus on Africa under a new commander who “comes from the structures that are much more closely linked with the faithful”. And he gives BizNews the inside track on the Ukrainian counter offensive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices