Putin to travel to Mongolia next week despite an ICC warrant for his arrest
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next week, the Kremlin said, despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant for his arrest.
The visit, scheduled for Tuesday, will be Putin’s first trip to an ICC member state since the warrant was issued in March 2023 over suspected war crimes in Ukraine.
Under the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, ICC members are bound to detain suspects for whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the court if the suspects set foot on their soil.
But the court doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism. In a famous case, then-Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir wasn’t arrested in 2015 when he visited South Africa, a member of the court, sparking angry condemnation by rights activists and the country’s main opposition party.
Putin arrest warrant: The International Criminal Court issues warrant for Russian president, alleging the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who previously stressed that Russia doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, told reporters during his daily conference call Friday that the Kremlin has “no worries†about the upcoming trip: “We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia,†he said.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah underscored in a statement Friday that Mongolia “is a State Party to the ICC Rome Statute†and thus has the obligation to cooperate with the court.
“The ICC relies on its States Parties and other partners to execute its decisions including in relation to arrest warrants,†the official said, adding: “In case of non-cooperation, ICC judges may make a finding to that effect and inform the Assembly of States Parties of it. It is then for the Assembly to take any measure it deems appropriate.†It wasn’t clear from the statement what kind of measures that would suggest.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it “hopes that the Mongolian government will realize the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. We call on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the mandatory international arrest warrant and hand Putin over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.â€
Putin will travel to Mongolia upon the invitation of President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh “to participate in the ceremonial events dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armed forces over the Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River,†according to an online Kremlin statement. Putin will also hold talks with Khurelsukh and other top Mongolian officials, the statement read.
More than 2,400 Ukrainian children ages 6 to 17 have been taken to Belarus from four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces, a study by Yale University has found.
The ICC has accused Putin of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded 2½ years.
It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of [children] and that of unlawful transfer of [children] from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.â€
The Kremlin has dismissed the warrant as “null and void.â€
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Putin hasn’t traveled to ICC member states ever since. Putin skipped a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies last year in South Africa.
South Africa lobbied Moscow for months for Putin not to attend to avoid the diplomatic fallout since the country is an ICC member, and ultimately announced the countries had reached a “mutual agreement†that Putin not attend a meeting at which he’s normally a fixture.
The Kremlin said that Putin had decided not to attend in person. He instead took part in the summit in Johannesburg by video link, during which he launched a tirade against the West.
Last year, the Kremlin also bristled at old ally Armenia over its decision to join the ICC, adding to the growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan. Armenian officials, however, quickly sought to assure Russia that Putin wouldn’t be arrested if he entered the country.
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