The Kremlin said on Friday that it had “no concerns” about a possible arrest of Vladimir Putin during his upcoming visit to Mongolia. Expected on September 3, this will be his first trip to a state that is a signatory to the Rome Statute since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him in March 2023. However, each member state is required to arrest anyone on its soil who is the subject of an ICC arrest warrant, which is the case for Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president is accused by The Hague of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin, which does not recognize the ICC, has always firmly rejected these accusations against the Russian president.
Thwarted trips
“There is no concern. We have an excellent dialogue with our Mongolian friends,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Of course, all aspects of the visit have been carefully prepared,” he added, without giving further details.
However, Vladimir Putin has been careful for almost a year and a half to avoid certain trips abroad, for example skipping the BRICS summit in South Africa in August 2023, then the G20 summit in India in September of the same year. On the other hand, he has notably visited China last May, North Korea in June, and Azerbaijan in mid-August, none of these countries being members of the ICC.
A strategic move to Mongolia
In Mongolia, Vladimir Putin is to meet with his counterpart Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and take part in the celebrations of the 85th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armies against Japan, during the battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939. The last visit of the Russian president to Mongolia was in September 2019.
Mongolia is located in East Asia, landlocked between Russia and China, which covet its rich natural resources and want to increase their influence there, as does the United States. In early August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar to meet with “a central partner” of Washington. French President Emmanuel Macron also visited Mongolia in May 2023, with whom Paris wants to strengthen bilateral energy ties.