Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next Sunday, the Kremlin announced today, despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued a warrant for his arrest last year.
The visit, scheduled for September 3, will be Putin's first visit to an ICC member state since a warrant was issued in March 2023 on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine. Under the Rome Statute, ICC members are required to arrest suspects for whom a court has issued an arrest warrant if they step on their soil, but the court has no mechanism to compel them to do so.
According to the Kremlin's online statement, Putin will travel to Mongolia at the invitation of President Uhn Hurelsukh "to take part in the commemoration of the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armies over the Japanese at Khalkhkin Gol. "Putin will also hold talks with Hurelsukh and other senior Mongolian officials. officials," the report added.
The ICC has accused Putin of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, where Moscow has been waging war for the past two and a half years. It was the first time that a global court issued an order against the leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The Kremlin dismissed the order as "null and void."
Since then, Putin has not traveled to member states of the ICC. Putin skipped the BRICS summit in South Africa last year.
Last year, the Kremlin also fumed at old ally Armenia over its decision to join the International Criminal Court, adding to growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan. Armenian officials, however, quickly tried to reassure Russia that Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.
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