The journey could be the primary by the Russian president to a member of the Worldwide Felony Court docket since his arrest for “conflict crimes.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin will go to Mongolia subsequent week though the nation is a member of the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for him final yr.
The go to, scheduled for Sept. 3, can be Putin’s first journey to an ICC member state for the reason that Hague-based courtroom issued the arrest warrant in March 2023 charging the president with illegally deporting Ukrainian youngsters to Russia and Russian-controlled territory.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated there have been “no issues” in regards to the go to, Russian state information company RIA Novosti reported.
The go to is on the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. “Now we have an exquisite dialogue with our Mongolian pals,” Peskov stated.
Underneath the Rome Statute, the courtroom’s founding treaty, ICC members are obliged to arrest suspects in opposition to whom an arrest warrant has been issued in the event that they set foot on its territory. Nevertheless, the courtroom has no enforcement mechanism.
On Friday, Ukraine referred to as on Mongolia to detain Putin when he visits the nation.
“The Ukrainian aspect hopes that the Mongolian authorities will concentrate on the truth that Vladimir Putin is a conflict felony,” the Overseas Ministry stated in an announcement, including that “we name on the Mongolian authorities to execute the binding worldwide arrest warrant.”
The ICC arrest warrant in opposition to Putin was the primary in opposition to a frontrunner of one of many 5 everlasting members of the United Nations Safety Council.
Putin has averted travelling to ICC member states for the reason that order was issued, which he considers “null and void”. Final yr, he didn’t attend a summit of the BRICS bloc of creating economies, which incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in Johannesburg.
ICC member South Africa lobbied Moscow for months to cease Putin from attending to keep away from diplomatic fallout, saying that the international locations had reached a “mutual settlement” that common BRICS members wouldn’t attend the assembly.
Putin participated by way of video hyperlink, throughout which he launched right into a tirade in opposition to the West.
Armenia angered Russia final yr by its choice to hitch the ICC, including to rising tensions between the long-time allies.
Nevertheless, Armenian officers rapidly sought to guarantee Russia that Putin wouldn’t be arrested if he entered the nation.
Mongolia signed the Rome Statute in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.
The Kremlin stated Putin will maintain talks with Khurelsukh and different senior Mongolian officers, participating in “ceremonial occasions devoted to the eighty fifth anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armed forces over Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River.”
