The International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine on Friday called for the Russian president’s arrest during his upcoming visit to Mongolia. But the Kremlin says it is calm.
Vladimir Putin, who is serving an arrest warrant for suspected illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, is expected in Mongolia on Tuesday, the first ICC member country he has visited since the warrant was issued and is therefore required to arrest him.
Like all other states parties to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC, Mongolia “has an obligation to cooperate” with it, a spokesman for the court, Fadi el-Abdallah, told reporters.
In Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also urged, in a statement, the Mongolian authorities to “transfer [Vladimir] Putin at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But, according to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, “there is no concern” about this on the Kremlin side. “We have an excellent dialogue with our Mongolian friends,” he told reporters.
“Of course, all aspects of the visit were carefully prepared,” he added, without giving further details.
Risky, but not so much
When a member country fails to meet its obligations to the ICC, the latter can refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties. This assembly meets once a year, but its possible sanctions are essentially limited to a verbal reprimand.
In the past, other individuals subject to an arrest warrant from the Court, such as former Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, have travelled to countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute without being questioned.
Mongolia signed it in 2000, before ratifying it in 2002.
Vladimir Putin “would be responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population [d’enfants] and illegal population transfer [d’enfants] from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” reads the arrest warrant issued on March 17, 2023.
Russia, which does not recognise the ICC, has always firmly rejected the charges brought by this court against the Russian president.
Mr. Putin has, however, been careful for almost a year and a half to avoid certain trips abroad, for example skipping the BRICS summit in South Africa in August 2023, then the G20 summit in India in September of the same year.
On the other hand, he notably went to China in May, to North Korea in June and to Azerbaijan in mid-August, none of these countries being members of the ICC.
Mongolia, a courted country
In Mongolia, Vladimir Putin is to hold talks with his counterpart Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and take part in celebrations marking the 85th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armies against Japan at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939.
The previous visit of the Russian president to Mongolia was in September 2019.
Mongolia is landlocked between Russia and China, which covet its rich natural resources and want to increase their influence there, as does the United States.
In early August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, to meet with “a central partner” of Washington.
French President Emmanuel Macron also travelled to Mongolia in May 2023, with which Paris wants to strengthen bilateral energy ties.