This article was originally published in English
Members of the International Tribunal are obliged to arrest suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but the body has no enforcement mechanism.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday in his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since an arrest warrant was issued against him in 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine.
Despite calls from the EU, the ICC and Ukraine for him to be arrested in Mongolia, Putin was warmly welcomed at the international airport in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, by Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg.
However, it was not clear why Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh was not there to welcome him in person, which seemed like a diplomatic snub. Putin and Ukhnaa Khurelsukh will attend a commemoration ceremony on Tuesday of the victory in 1939 of the Soviet and Mongolian troops over the Japanese Army that had taken control of Manchuria, in northeastern China.
Thousands of soldiers died in months of fighting in a dispute over where the border between Manchuria and Mongolia was. Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Mongolia was a Soviet satellite state.
EU and Ukraine demand Putin’s arrest
Ukraine has called on Mongolia to arrest Putin and hand him over to the Hague Tribunal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in kyiv said it “hopes that the Mongolian government will realise that Vladimir Putin is a a war criminal“.
The European Commission has also called on Mongolia to comply with its obligations to the ICC and place the Russian leader under arrest. “Mongolia has been a member state of the Rome Statute of the ICC since 2002, with the legal obligations that this entails”a Commission spokesman said on Monday, referring to the treaty on which the court is based.
“We have expressed our concern about the visit and made our position on the ICC clear through our delegation in Mongolia,” he added.
“The EU supports the ICC prosecutor’s investigation in Ukraine, and we call for the cooperation of all member states,” a Kremlin spokesman said last week. He is not worried about the visit.
The members of the International Court are obliged to arrest suspects if an arrest warrant has been issuedbut the Court has no enforcement mechanism.
The ICC has charged Putin with be held responsible for child abductions in Ukrainewhere fighting has raged for two and a half years. Putin has not travelled to ICC member states since the arrest warrant was issued in March 2023.
