Travels to Mongolia • “Obliged to cooperate” • Kremlin: We are not worried
Putin recently visited Azerbaijan to strengthen the relationship between the neighboring countries. His next trip is on Tuesday, then to the neighboring country of Mongolia.
The reason for the visit is the 85th anniversary of the victory over Japan, where the Soviet Union and Mongolia fought side by side.
First visit to an ICC country
During the year, Putin, in addition to Azerbaijan, visited China, Belarus, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Vietnam and Kazakhstan – none of the countries have joined the International Criminal Court’s ICC statutes.
Last year issued ICC an arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes after the deportation of Ukrainian children in occupied territories.
However, Mongolia has joined the ICC’s Rome Statute, which the country signed in 2000.
– They are obliged to cooperate with the ICC, so they should extradite Putin to The Hague, says international law expert Ove Bring.
The expert: Putin is taking a risk
Putin had previously planned a trip to South Africa, but the country is affiliated to the ICC and has previously had problems linked to extraditions and the ICC. In 2015, the then Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited the country – despite the fact that there was an arrest warrant against him.
– Putin had intended to travel to South Africa in connection with a Brics meeting, but then he did not dare to set foot on a plane and go there, says international law expert Ove Bring.
An independent South African court demanded his arrest, but al-Bashir was still able to return home to Sudan without the authorities intervening.
– When South Africa did not resolve this issue completely, Putin risked being extradited to The Hague by the South African law enforcement authorities. He is now risking that, says Ove Bring.
Kremlin: We are not worried
However, the Kremlin states that it is not worried about the trip to Mongolia.
– There are no worries. We have a good dialogue with our friends from Mongolia, says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to AFP.
From the Ukrainian side, Mongolia has been urged to arrest Putin and hand him over to the court in The Hague. Something that doesn’t have to be completely impossible, says Ove Bring.
– If there is an independent judiciary that analyzes the issue, such as in South Africa, he risks something, says Ove Bring.
The fact that Putin is traveling despite this, Ove Bring believes, is due to the fact that he has obtained assurances from Mongolia that nothing will happen. At the same time, he does not believe that a passive action by Mongolia can lower confidence in the ICC.
– I think rather you lose confidence in Mongolia as a rule of law in that case. It is not the court’s fault if Mongolia does not live up to its obligations.