Leaders of BRICS member countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are meeting in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the summit in person. He will join the gathering virtually and will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Johannesburg.
Putin is not attending the first in-person BRICS summit since 2019 because of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against him for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
South Africa, the host of the BRICS summit, is a signatory to the ICC statute and is bound by it to arrest Putin.