Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) visits the Children’s Art Center in Sevastopol with Mikhail Razvochaev (left), Governor of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, on the 18th (local time). AP Yonhap News
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on the 17th (local time). Although there is no possibility of actual arrest, it is expected to have the effect of shrinking President Putin’s position in the international community.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber said on its website that day, “We have issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Livova-Belova in connection with the situation in Ukraine on March 17.” Livova-Belova is a member of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Child Rights.
The ICC said, “President Putin is responsible for the war crimes of illegally deporting and illegally relocating children from occupied Ukraine (since February 24 last year).” There are reasonable grounds for that,” he said. Livova-Belova was also charged with the same charges as Putin.
This is the first time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a top Russian figure since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year. This is the third time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a head of state, following those of Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
It is highly unlikely that President Putin, the most powerful person in Russia, will actually be arrested. Since Russia withdrew from the ICC in 2016, it has no legal obligation to arrest and extradite its own suspects to the ICC. In addition, the ICC does not proceed with a trial by default without the presence of the accused.
Nevertheless, it is evaluated that the symbolic meaning is not small in that the ICC, which is a member of 123 countries, officially designated President Putin as a war crime suspect.
The New York Times (NYT) said that the issuance of an arrest warrant by the ICC “has an indisputable moral weight.” He pointed out that he was on the same level as former Serbian President Milošević and the Nazis who were tried for war crimes in Nuremberg after the end of World War II.”
Since the 123 member states of the ICC are obliged to arrest suspects for whom arrest warrants have been issued and hand them over to the ICC, practical effects such as narrowing the range of countries President Putin can visit can be expected, deepening Russia’s isolation. The United States sees it as an opportunity to turn countries that have maintained neutrality on the war in Ukraine to the West.
Some point out that he sprinkled ashes on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia scheduled for the 20th. President Xi was planning to show off his image as a ‘mediator of peace’ by proposing a ceasefire, but the ICC’s announcement made it look like he was sitting face to face with a ‘suspected war criminal’. The Associated Press said, “The US administration of Joe Biden expects China’s ambition to act as a mediator of peace between Russia and Ukraine will be criticized.”
President Putin seems to be ignoring the issuance of an ICC arrest warrant. President Putin visited the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, on the 18th, the day after the arrest warrant was issued. President Putin toured the Children’s Art Center, which opened on the same day. It is not known what President Putin said about the ICC’s issuance of an arrest warrant against him.