Russia, Putin risks arrest in Mongolia? How things really are –

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia on September 3, his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since the Hague-based tribunal issued an arrest warrant against him in March 2023 for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. Kiev has already urged Mongolia to arrest the Russian president, but the Kremlin has said it is “not concerned” about the matter. ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah said Mongolian officials “have an obligation” to abide by the court’s rules, but clarified that this does not necessarily mean making an arrest. Asked whether Moscow, which does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, had discussed the arrest warrant with Ulan Bator before Putin’s trip, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “all aspects of the visit have been carefully prepared.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has called on “the Mongolian government to be aware that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.” “We call on the Mongolian authorities to execute the binding international arrest warrant and transfer Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Kiev said. Mongolia became a signatory to the ICC’s Treaty of Rome in December 2000. Under the treaty, all 124 ICC member states are required to execute the warrant if Putin were to set foot on their territory. But the ICC has no police force of its own and relies on the cooperation of its member states to execute any arrest warrants. Otherwise, the court is required to report the matter to the ICC’s governing body, the Assembly of States Parties, which meets once a year. But the Assembly’s options are mostly limited to verbal sanctions.

Of the 49 arrest warrants issued since 2002, only 21 have led to detentions and court appearances. Prominent leaders wanted by the ICC have travelled to member states with impunity in the past. Sudan’s former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019, has travelled to member states such as Jordan and South Africa without consequences, despite being the subject of two arrest warrants from the court in The Hague. Putin, who has already significantly reduced his visits abroad since launching his offensive in Ukraine in 2022, has yet to visit an ICC member state since the warrant was issued. Last year, the Kremlin leader cancelled a visit to a BRICS summit in South Africa, which is an ICC member, after internal and external pressure on Pretoria to arrest him.