South Africa says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS summit it's hosting in August, putting an end to questions over whether it would act on an arrest warrant for Putin.
The Kremlin says the Russian leader met Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin and nearly three dozen of his mercenary commanders for talks in Moscow late last month.
That's in contrast to the deal worked out after the failed uprising last month. The Kremlin had said the Wagner group leader would be exiled to neighboring Belarus but would not face charges.
The fate of the private military company is unclear, especially after it was credited with delivering Russia recent gains in the country's war against Ukraine.
The trip was Putin's first-ever visit to the Donbas region, which Russia illegally annexed last year. It followed the International Criminal Court's decision to issue a warrant for him on war crimes.
Some French legislators and activists are calling on the French president to rescind the award to the Russian leader because of the Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In a new documentary, the former British prime minister said Russia's leader didn't seem serious about avoiding war before his country invaded Ukraine. The Kremlin says Johnson's statement is a lie.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to observe the cease-fire for 36 hours starting Jan. 6. A Ukrainian official dismissed the move as "a cynical trap."
Russia will end 2022 in a weaker global standing than when the year began. Its struggles in Ukraine surprised the Kremlin, and the global punishments are starting to hamper the Russian economy.