Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia under the ICC arrest warrant

The Kremlin says it has “no worries” about President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is a member of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for him last year.

The visit, scheduled for September 3, will be Putin’s first trip to an ICC member state since the warrant was issued in March 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Under the Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, ICC members are required to detain suspects for whom a court has issued an arrest warrant if they set foot on their soil.

But the court has no enforcement mechanism. In one famous case, then-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was not arrested in 2015 when he visited South Africa, which is a member of the tribunal, sparking angry condemnation from human rights activists and the main party of opposition of the country.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who has previously stressed that Russia does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, told reporters during his daily briefing on Friday that the Kremlin had “no worries” about the upcoming trip: “We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends. from Mongolia,” he said.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah stressed in a statement on Friday that Mongolia “is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC” and therefore has an obligation to cooperate with the court.

“The ICC relies on its state parties and other partners to enforce its decisions, including on arrest warrants,” the official said, adding: “In the event of non-cooperation, ICC judges can make a finding to that effect and I can inform the Assembly. of the states parties to it. The Assembly must then take whatever action it deems appropriate.” It was not clear from the statement what kind of measures these would be.

According to a statement issued by the Kremlin on Thursday, Putin will travel to Mongolia at 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 river Khalkhin Gol.” Putin will also hold talks with Khurelsukh and other high-ranking Mongolian officials, the statement said.

The ICC accused Putin of personal responsibility for child abductions in Ukraine, where Moscow has waged a devastating war for the past two and a half years.

It was the first time the global court had issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting (children) and illegally transferring (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

The court also indicted Putin’s envoy for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, on the same charges, and later issued arrest warrants for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity inhumane acts.

Russia is not a member of the tribunal, does not recognize its jurisdiction and refuses to hand over the suspects. Officials rejected the warrants as “null and void”.

Putin has not traveled to ICC member states since the arrest warrant was issued. He skipped a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies in South Africa last year.

South Africa lobbied Moscow for months for Putin not to attend to avoid diplomatic fallout because the country is a member of the ICC, and eventually announced that the countries had reached a “mutual agreement” that Putin would not will attend a meeting in which he is normally a participant. The Kremlin said Putin had decided not to attend in person. Instead, he took part in the Johannesburg summit via video link, during which he launched a tirade against the West.

Last year, the Kremlin also angered longtime ally Armenia over its decision to join the ICC, adding to growing tensions between the two countries. Armenian officials, however, quickly sought to assure Russia that Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.