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 Thursday, despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant for his arrest.

The visit, scheduled for Sept. 3, 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 they set foot on their soil.

But the court doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism. In a famous case, then Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir wasn’t arrested in 2015 when he visited South Africa, which is a member of the court, sparking angry condemnation by rights activists and the country’s main opposition party.

The Kremlin, which had previously stressed that it doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, didn’t comment on the prospects of Putin being arrested in Mongolia.

According to the Kremlin’s online statement, 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.” Putin will also hold talks with Khurelsukh and other top Mongolian officials, the statement read.

The ICC has accused Putin of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, where Moscow has fought a devastating war for the last 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 U.N. 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.”

The Kremlin has dismissed the warrant as “null and void.”

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 he’s normally a fixture at. 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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