How does the Hague arrest warrant really affect Putin?

Vladimir Putin went to swell a list big criminals from The Hague. The International Criminal Court took a crucial step by issuing an arrest warrant for the Russian president on Friday over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from Ukraine’s war-torn territories to Russia. But what consequences will this measure have in practice?

amazing verdict?

Although in an interview with CNN this Saturday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, expressed his belief that Putin will be tried like the Nazis or Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo, the possibility of the Russian leader ending up on trial is almost nil for many reasons. First, that the court cannot discuss cases without the appearance of the defendant. And in 2016, Russia withdrew from the Rome Statute (it signed it in 2000 but withdrew its signature after the annexation of Crimea) that serves as the legal basis for the court and has always said it will not extradite its officials.

On Friday afternoon, Moscow reacted to Putin’s arrest warrant by saying it was irrelevant. “The decisions of the International Criminal Court mean nothing for our country, even from a legal point of view,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajarova. Dmitri Medvedev, vice president of Russia’s Security Council, went further by comparing the measure to toilet paper.

Before issuing an arrest warrant for the Russian president, The CFI was awaiting the arrest of 15 people, totaling more than 200 charges between them all. (116 for war crimes, 87 for crimes against humanity and three for genocide) related to crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Libya, Ivory Coast and Sudan’s Darfur region, reports Colpisa.

But this arrest warrant is an unprecedented step by international justice, as it is the first time that a court in The Hague has requested the arrest of a head of state who is still in office. It is also the first time in its history that it has called for the arrest of the president of one of the five veto powers in the United Nations Security Council.

can putin travel abroad

However, this arrest warrant issued against Putin and Lvov-Belov does they risk being detained if they travel to one of the 123 countries members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because signatory states to their treaty are obliged to cooperate in the arrest of suspects. Putin cannot travel to countries that have ratified the Rome Statute, such as those that recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. In other words, you cannot travel to all countries in Europe, South America (including Russian allies like Venezuela), Tajikistan, where you were last in June 2022. In addition, you will have closed countries like Afghanistan, South Africa, Central African Republic and Nigeria.

How does the meeting with China affect that?

According to a note published by the Kremlin on its website this Friday, “From March 20 to 22, at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia.” “During the talks, current issues of the future development of the comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China will be discussed,” the statement said.

Earlier this week, the newspaper The Wall Street Journal It has already been announced that the Chinese president will travel to Russia to meet with Putin and discuss possible ways to stop the tragedy in Ukraine. It was similarly assured that after the talks in Moscow, Xi would hold a video conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to inform him about the agreement with the Russian president. It would be the first contact of both of them since the beginning of the war. The White House said Thursday that a conversation between the presidents of China and Ukraine would be “a good thing,” according to Colpisa’s Rafael M. Mañueco.

China has so far avoided condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but in its peace plan published on the first anniversary of the start of the conflict, it emphasized the need to respect the sovereignty of nations and respect their territorial integrity. Right now, the agreement looks more complicated, since the Kremlin has warned that the currently occupied territories, in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, are already part of Russia.

No news from the UN?

There are telling silences. Faced with this warrant against Putin, the UN remains silent. Its Secretary General António Guterres refused to comment on the measures against the Russian leader. “The ICC is an independent institution of the (United Nations) secretariat and we do not comment on its decisions,” Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesman, made clear on Friday at his daily press conference. Dujarric was repeatedly asked about the consequences that the arrest warrant could have, for example in the case of Putin’s possible visit to the UN forum, but he answered that he did not want to “respond to hypotheses”. On whether Guterres himself would agree to meet with Putin at this point, when that arrest warrant is in effect, he maintained the same tone: “The Secretary-General will talk to whoever he has to talk to in order to advance the issues he has on the table. “

This is the first time that the International Criminal Court has called for the arrest of the president of one of the five veto powers in the United Nations Security Council.