The Kremlin said Friday it was not worried that Mongolia could arrest President Vladimir Putin during his visit there next week, despite it being a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued a warrant for the Russian leader.
Putin will travel to Mongolia on Tuesday, in a first trip to an ICC member since The Hague-based court issued a warrant for his arrest over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children in March 2023.
“There are no worries, we have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Asked if Moscow had discussed the arrest warrant with Ulaanbaatar ahead of Putin’s trip, he said: “All aspects of the visit were carefully prepared.”
Russia does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Ukraine on Friday urged Mongolia to arrest Putin when he visits the country.
“The Ukrainian side hopes that the government of Mongolia is aware of the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal,” Kyiv’s foreign ministry said.
“We call on the Mongolian authorities to execute the binding international arrest warrant and transfer Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”
Mongolia became a signatory of the Rome Treaty of the ICC in December 2000.
Under the treaty, any of the 124 ICC member states would be expected to implement the warrant if Putin were to set foot on its territory.
But the ICC has no police of its own and relies on the co-operation of its member states to carry out any arrest warrants.
Failure to do so will prompt the court to report the matter to the ICC’s managing body called the Assembly of State Parties, which meets once a year.
Limited success
But such referrals in the past have had limited success, with the assembly’s options confined mainly to verbal sanctions against errant states.
Of the 49 arrest warrants issued since 2002, only 21 have resulted in detentions and court appearances.
Some top leaders wanted by the ICC have thumbed their noses at the court and travelled to member countries with impunity.
Former Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in 2019, has travelled to member states such as Jordan and South Africa without consequences even though he is the subject of two ICC arrest warrants.
Moscow has also brushed off the warrant but Putin — who had already vastly scaled down foreign visits since launching the Ukraine offensive in 2022 — has not travelled to an ICC member state since the warrant was issued.
Last year he called off a visit to a BRICS summit in South Africa, which is an ICC member, after internal and external pressure on Pretoria to arrest the Russian leader should he attend the conference.
Putin is visiting Mongolia for the 85th anniversary of a battle between Japanese and Soviet and Mongolian forces during Japan’s occupation of nearby Manchuria.
burs/rlp
