LThe decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putinthe Russian president who ordered the invasion of Ukraine and who, in the context of the conflict it unleashed, is responsible for war crimes, remains firm and can be executed in at least 130 different countries.
Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, United States, Japan, Paraguay, Afghanistan, Germany, France, Portugal, United Kingdom These are just some of the 130 countries that could arrest the Russian president if he dares to step on their territories. The ICC siege includes 33 African states, 19 from Asia and the Pacific, 43 from Europe, 28 from the Americas, and 25 from Western Europe.
And all this despite the threats made by Moscow that it does not recognize that jurisdiction and that, according to some Putin proxies, military action could even be deployed against the ICC itself if it carries out that order.
The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, assured that Putin can be arrested “immediately” in “more than 130 countries”. And he stressed – without nuances – that this arrest warrant “is very important and changes the rules of the game.”
Last Friday, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Putin and María Lvova-BelovaRussian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, for illegally deporting Ukrainian minors to Russia.
According to Borrell, this is “something that must be taken into account, because we can negotiate with whoever we want, but this court decision is still valid. Is there. President Putin must be arrested if he travels to more than 130 countries”, he stressed.
The head of European diplomacy warned that Russian authorities “are dismissing this ICC decisionsaying that in the end Russia has not signed this treaty, but let’s see its practical consequences”.
But the issue does not end there. The same International Criminal Court denounced that there are “threats” that began to reach members of that court for having issued the arrest warrant against Putin.
The ICC – based in The Hague – rejected Russia intimidating its jurisdiction by starting a criminal investigation against the court’s chief prosecutorKarim Khan, and against three magistrates, for issuing the arrest warrant.
Added to this is the fact that the former Russian president Dimitri Medvedev, through Telegram, warned the judges of the Court to “look at the sky carefully”referring to a missile attack.
Due to these threats, the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties, made up of the 123 member countries of the ICC, issued a statement to deplore the “threats against the ICC, as well as against its Prosecutor and its judges”.
And, incidentally, he also criticized “attempts to obstruct international efforts to ensure accountability for prohibited acts by international law”.
Prosecutor Khan, who has spent more than a year investigating possible war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during the Russian offensive, warned that the deportations add up to “thousands” of cases.
As these threats advance, Ukraine maintained that more than 16,000 Ukrainian children would have been deported to Russia from the start of the invasion. In addition, according to kyiv spokesmen, many were transferred to institutions and shelters.