International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Putin

Updated March 17, 2023 3:30 PM ET

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes involving charges that Russia forcibly abducted Ukrainian children.

The ICC has also issued a warrant against Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

The court said in a Press release Friday, the two men are “allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (of children) and that of illegal transfer of population (of children) from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.

The Hague criminal court’s ruling marked a rare and important step, calling for the arrest of a sitting world leader – although analysts have acknowledged the chances of President Putin being arrested on the charges are slim.

Indeed, in Moscow, officials were quick to note that Russia had never signed on as a party to the ICC, as they dismissed the charges outright.

“The question itself is outrageous and unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Russia, like a number of other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, and therefore none of its decisions are of legal significance for the Russian Federation.”

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin called the court’s decision “historical.”

Like the United States, Ukraine is also not a party to the ICC. But Kostin noted that the Ukrainian government cooperated with the court on criminal investigations on its territory. He said his office had turned over more than 1,000 pages of documents to the ICC relating to the alleged forced deportation of children to Russia.

A published report last month, researchers at Yale University and the US State Department accused the Russian government of operating a systematic network of childcare centers for thousands of Ukrainian children.

Russian officials did not deny the arrival of Ukrainian children in the country, but characterized the children’s centers as part of a larger humanitarian program for abandoned and war-traumatized orphans.

Court warrant ‘astonishing blow’

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said judges decided to make those warrants public in an attempt to deter further crimes.

“It is prohibited by international law for occupying powers to transfer civilians from the territories where they live to other territories,” he said. “Children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention.”

Experts seemed surprised by the news.

“I was hoping [this would happen]but I had no idea it would be this fast,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

“It is an amazing decision by the court, which has moved to the top of the Russian state,” said David Bosco, author of Raw Justice: The International Criminal Court in a World of Power Politics.

However, Bosco warned: “The arrest warrant will have no immediate implications because no trial can move forward without Putin in custody and there is no chance of that happening in the near future. coming”.

Despite the difficulty of judging Putin, human rights advocates hailed the news as a major step.

“This is a great day for the many victims of crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken a first step towards ending the impunity that has emboldened the perpetrators of Russia’s war against Ukraine for too long.”

Russia discusses adoption of Ukrainian children

While Russia has vigorously denied allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Ukraine, it has made no secret of its intention to relocate Ukrainian children to Russia, presenting it as a noble humanitarian effort.

President Putin hosted Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights, for a meeting in the Kremlin in February during which the two men openly discussed Russian adoption programs for Ukrainian children in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including Lvova-Belova’s new teenage son.

A transcript of the conversation is posted on the Kremlin website.

“You also adopted a child from Mariupol, right?” Putin asked.

“Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovich,” replied Lvova-Belova, using the Russian leader’s surname. “Thanks to you.”

It was a remarkable admission: Ukraine halted adoptions after Russia invaded the country, and child rights groups called the countries not to adopt Ukrainian children during the war.

Lvova-Belova noted that if biological parents were found, her commission would work to return the children to their Ukrainian families, “wherever they are, in Ukraine or another country.”

To which Putin said: “That is absolutely correct.”

For the US, it’s complicated

Bosco, the international studies expert who has written about the ICC, says the court’s new case raises uncomfortable questions for the United States.

Even though US leaders refer to Putin as “war criminal“and accuse Russia of”crimes against humanity“In Ukraine, the United States is not a signatory to the Court’s statute and has a complicated relationship with it.

“This is going to be another delicate moment for the United States because of the American position that the ICC should not be able to prosecute citizens of non-member states,” Bosco said.

In 2020, the Trump administration leveled penalties against the ICC’s chief prosecutor at the time, who was investigating allegations that US troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

In the Biden administration, meanwhile, reports point to an internal dispute: While the justice and state departments favor sharing intelligence with the international tribunal on Russian atrocities, the Pentagon blocked for fear of setting a precedent that would allow lawsuits against Americans, according The New York Times.

Alex Leff and Michele Kelemen reported from Washington, DC Charles Maynes reported from Moscow.

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