“Illegal deportation of Ukrainian children”… Russian isolation expected to deepen
Laugh as if looking for an occupied area Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) visits the Linyi Art Center in Sevastopol with the governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Rajbochayev (left) on the Crimean Peninsula on the 18th (local time). AP Yonhap News
He is the third head of state after Bashir of Sudan and Gaddafi of Libya.
Putin’s surprise visit to Crimea and Mariupol the day after the warrant is issued
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 17th (local time). Although there is no possibility of actual arrest, it is expected to have the effect of shrinking President Putin’s position in the international community.
After an arrest warrant was issued, President Putin lavishly visited occupied Ukraine where war crimes were committed.
The ICC Pre-Trial Court said on its website that day, “We have issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Livovabelova in connection with the situation in Ukraine on March 17.” Livovabelova is a member of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Children’s Rights.
The ICC said, “President Putin is responsible for the war crimes of illegally deporting and illegally relocating Ukrainian children from occupied territories (since February 24 last year).” ”he said. The same charges were applied against Livovabelova as against Putin.
This is the first time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a top Russian figure since Russia invaded Ukraine. This is the third time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a head of state, following those of Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
It is highly unlikely that Putin will actually be arrested. Since Russia withdrew from the ICC in 2016, it has no legal obligation to arrest and extradite its own suspects to the ICC. The ICC does not proceed with a trial by default without the presence of the accused.
Nevertheless, it is evaluated that the symbolic meaning is not small in that the ICC, which is a member of 123 countries, officially designated President Putin as a war crime suspect. The New York Times (NYT) reported on the issuance of an arrest warrant by the ICC that “Putin is accused of being the main culprit in the Darfur massacre, former Sudanese President Bashir, former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević imprisoned as a genocide during the Bosnian Civil War, and war criminal in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. He pointed out that he was on the same level as the Nazis who were tried.
Since the 123 member states of the ICC are obliged to arrest suspects for whom arrest warrants have been issued and hand them over to the ICC, practical effects such as narrowing the range of countries President Putin can visit can be expected, deepening Russia’s isolation. The United States sees this as an opportunity to turn countries that have maintained neutrality on the war in Ukraine toward the West.
President Putin seems to be ignoring the issuance of an ICC arrest warrant. On the 18th, the day after the arrest warrant was issued, he visited the Crimean Peninsula in strict secrecy to mark the 9th anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. He toured the Children’s Art Center, which opened that day.
On the 19th, President Putin also visited the military headquarters located in southern Rostov-on-Don and received a report from General Commander-in-Chief Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the war in Ukraine. Then, he rode a helicopter to find Mariupol, Donetsk Region, Ukraine, which was occupied in May last year, and drove around by car to talk with residents.
Mariupol is the area where the most heinous war crimes were committed in the early days of the war. On March 17 of last year, the Russian military bombed a civilian evacuation space marked with the word ‘children’, causing a tragedy in which more than 600 people were killed.
There are testimonies that many Mariupol residents were forcibly relocated to the Russian mainland. President Putin’s surprise visit to such a place can be interpreted as a kind of mockery of the ICC’s arrest warrant against him and criticism from the international community.