The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine. Friday’s decision was immediately welcomed by Ukraine and the Russian leader’s critics, but the Kremlin denounced it as outrageous.
The order is on suspicion of illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to Russia.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears personal criminal responsibility for the above crimes because he committed the acts directly, in concert with others and/or through others and because of his failure to exercise control over civilians and military personnel under his command who were committed or permitted the commission of the acts and which were under his effective authority and control”, notes the ICC.
The court in The Hague also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin’s commissioner for children’s rights. She worked directly under Putin and, according to US officials, oversaw the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
“Lvova-Belova’s efforts specifically include
the forced adoption of Ukrainian children
in Russian families, the so-called patriotic upbringing of Ukrainian children, legislative changes to expedite the granting of citizenship of the Russian Federation to Ukrainian children, and the deliberate removal of Ukrainian children by Russian forces,” the US Treasury Department announced last year when it added to its list of sanctions. Lvova-Belova said last month that she had “adopted” a child from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which is now under Russian control.
Judges in The Hague considered issuing secret warrants, but decided that making them public could “contribute to the prevention of further crimes”.
In turn, the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the actions of the ICC “have no significance”.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no significance for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible arrest “warrants” coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us,” noted Maria Zakharova.
Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev went further and compared the demand for the arrest of Vladimir Putin to “toilet paper” that did not need to explain where it should be used.
“This is outrageous and unacceptable,” was the brief comment of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
However, Ukrainian authorities were quick to welcome the news, with the country’s chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin calling it a “historic decision”.
“The world has received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and its leadership and supporters will be held accountable,” he said.
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, described the order as “just the beginning.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also welcomed the decision of the ICC.
“International criminals will be held accountable for child theft and other international crimes,” he tweeted.
And Russian opposition activists commented on the news.
“Eha!” exclaimed Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Will they arrest Putin? That’s what experts around the world asked. Although it originally signed the Rome Statute in 2000, Moscow never ratified it to become a member of the ICC. In 2016, due to Ukraine’s annexation of Crimea and airstrikes in Syria, the Kremlin withdrew its signature to join the court.
The Hague institution was created to prosecute and bring to justice those responsible for the most serious crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The court has global jurisdiction
It is considered a last resort and intervenes only when national authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute suspects.
However, the ICC has no arrest powers and can only exercise jurisdiction within countries that have signed the agreement that created it in 2002, known as the Rome Statute. It has 123 countries as members, and among the most famous people it has indicted are former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Muammar Gaddafi.
Since Russia is not a party to that agreement, Vladimir Putin or Maria Lvova-Belova will not be extradited and, of course, Putin is the Russian president, analysts say.
The International Criminal Court relies on countries around the world to help arrest and hand over suspects to The Hague.
Although Putin is unlikely to be detained, Jonathan Leader Maynard, a professor of international politics in London, said the order could create complications for him.
“The problems could be in terms of his freedom to travel the world or in a scenario where he falls from power. But right now it seems extremely unlikely that we will ever see Putin appear before the ICC,” Maynard believes.
Western publications recall that since Ukraine was invaded more than a year ago, its government estimates that more than 16,000 children are believed to have been transferred to Russia or Moscow-controlled areas.
The arrest warrants came a day after a UN-backed investigation accused Russia of wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including the forced deportation of children in areas it controls.
Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of atrocities during its year-long invasion of the neighboring country. Russia claims that the Ukrainian children have no parents or guardians to care for them, or that they cannot be found.
