International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin

Thunderbolt in The Hague. Around 4 p.m. on Friday March 17, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their alleged responsibility in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Ukraine has identified 16,221 children forcibly transferred to Russia. But tens of thousands more are said to have been deported to Crimea and at least 57 regions of the Russian Federation. What consequences can this decision have on Vladimir Putin?

A risk of arrest in 123 countries

Concretely, if the Russian President visits one of the 123 member countries of the International Criminal Court, he would take the risk of being arrested. “I don’t think that for the moment (…) it will prevent him from sleeping but today he is a man who, like a common criminal, a drug trafficker, could be apprehended, arrested to be tried before an international criminal court”, reported Me Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer specializing in international criminal law. Vladimir Putin thus joins Muammar Gaddafi, Laurent Gbagbo and the Sudanese Omar al-Bechir, the previous presidents in office being the subject of such a measure.