Mongolia ignores ICC demands to arrest Putin during state visit

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Russian President Vladimir Putin entered Mongolia this week without being arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) — a major blow to the institution's legitimacy.

Putin arrived in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar for a state visit late Monday evening, when he was greeted by Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh and flanked by an honor guard.

Putin's visit is ostensibly to celebrate the 1939 victory over Japan at the Battle of Khalkhin by Soviet-Mongolian forces.

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Putin will be spending four days in Mongolia meeting with national leaders. The attention to Putin’s latest trip derives from the fact that Mongolia is a member of the ICC, which in March 2023, issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Putin has carefully avoided visiting countries that are signatories of the Rome Statute, thus making them subject to ICC jurisdiction, until now.

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Russia – along with other major nations such as the U.S., China, India and Israel – are not signatories and thus do not answer to the ICC, but any visit to a Rome Statute signatory should subject Putin to arrest.

The Kremlin has dismissed any speculation of Putin