Putin defies war-crimes warrant with plan to visit Mongolia

Russian President Vladimir Putin received assurances ahead of a planned visit to Mongolia that he won’t be arrested for alleged war crimes under a warrant from the International Criminal Court, according to two people familiar with the Kremlin’s preparations.

The Sept. 3 visit will be the first by Putin to a member state of the ICC since the warrant was issued in March last year over the abduction of children from occupied areas of Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute governing the court, Mongolia is obliged to implement the warrant and arrest Putin if he appears on its territory.

“We have no such problem,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, in response to a request to comment on whether Mongolia had provided guarantees that it wouldn’t implement the ICC’s warrant.

Officials at Mongolia’s presidency, prime minister’s office and foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment. The foreign ministry met Friday with representatives of numerous foreign embassies to explain Putin’s visit, which is formally linked to the 85th anniversary commemorations of the 1939 battles at Khalkh Gol against Japanese forces.

“There is no risk of Putin’s arrest,” said Sergei Markov, a political consultant close to the Kremlin. “Before any foreign trips, the entire spectrum of the negotiating format is agreed in advance, and the host nation gives 100% guarantees that neither Putin nor any member of the delegation will be detained.”

Still, Putin hasn’t risked such a visit before. He skipped last year’s summit in South Africa of leaders from the BRICS grouping that also includes China, Brazil and India, after the host nation made clear it would have to comply with the ICC warrant as a member state.

The Russian leader also chose not to travel to the Group of 20 summit last year in India, even though it isn’t an ICC member. Brazil has invited Putin to the G-20 summit it will host in November, though President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said it’s a matter for the judiciary to decide whether to arrest him as a signatory to The Hague-based court.

Neither Russia nor the U.S. are members of the ICC, which counts 124 member states.

“States Parties to the ICC Rome Statute have the obligation to cooperate” with court decisions, “including in relation to arrest warrants,” an ICC spokesperson said in a statement. In the case of non-cooperation, an ICC judge may inform the Assembly of State Parties, which can “take any measure it deems appropriate.”

Putin’s visit comes only six months after the first Mongolian judge to serve on the ICC took up his post at the court. The country’s president Khurelsukh Ukhnaa hailed the development as a proof of Mongolia’s “growing reputation and strengthening status in the international arena,” according to the Mongolian National News Agency.

“All aspects of the visit have been thoroughly prepared,” Peskov told reporters Friday in response to questions about the ICC warrant, according to the Interfax news service. “We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.”

Russia is aiming to build a new gas pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, via Mongolia to China. A recent Mongolian decision not to include funding for the project in a new 5-year government economic plan has raised doubts over Beijing’s commitment to the project, the South China Morning Post reported.

Even so, Mongolia has assumed growing importance as a third country to facilitate trade between Russia and China amid the threat of U.S. sanctions against Chinese firms that deal directly with Russia, said Markov, the political consultant. Beijing is under increased pressure to curtail support that’s helping Moscow continue its war in Ukraine that began in February 2022.

“Putin is traveling to Mongolia under Chinese security guarantees,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a former Kremlin political adviser who’s now a government critic. “Mongolia won’t go against China even though it doesn’t want to pick a fight with the U.S.”