Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia late Monday night time for his first state go to to a member of the Worldwide Prison Court docket since he issued an arrest warrant for him in March 2023.
The courtroom accused Mr Putin and his youngsters’s rights commissioner of being personally liable for “illegal deportation” and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Earlier than Mr. Putin’s journey, the ICC stated Mongolia was certain to arrest Mr. Putin, however Mongolia is closely depending on Russia for gas and an arrest was thought-about extraordinarily unlikely.
The Kremlin rejected this chance.
“There aren’t any worries, we’ve got a fantastic dialogue with our pals from Mongolia,” Dmitry S. Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, instructed reporters on Friday, noting that “all facets of the go to have been totally ready.”
Mr Putin was greeted by what gave the impression to be Mongolian army guards on the airport and spent the night time within the capital Ulaanbaatar, an indication he’s snug within the nation.
Mr Putin’s go to on Tuesday on the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant served as a reminder that Russia nonetheless wields strategic sway over its southern neighbor regardless of hedging efforts.
Along with his go to, “Putin actually will get a symbolic victory,” stated Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Heart for Eurasia in Berlin. For Mongolia, he stated, the go to confirmed that the necessity to preserve relations with Moscow outweighed the nation’s promise in 2002 when it signed the Rome Statute ratifying its membership of the ICC
He added that opponents of Russia must “assume twice” in regards to the narrative that “Putin is a pariah, he’s ostracized and at any time when there may be an ICC order for a rustic that has ratified the Rome Statute, he shall be arrested.”
The Worldwide Court docket of Justice, primarily based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin last year, accusing him of committing conflict crimes by abducting and deporting Ukrainian youngsters. The courtroom additionally issued an order for the Russian Commissioner for Kids’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
The ICC has no enforcement mechanism. States which have joined the courtroom should detain those that are the topic of its arrest warrants. Russia will not be a signatory to the courtroom and has constantly rejected its authority.
Mongolia, a landlocked democracy wedged between Russia and China, treads a cautious political line to steadiness between its two way more highly effective neighbors. This contains taking a impartial place on the conflict in Ukraine.
Whereas hoping the West would ease a few of its geopolitical strain by internet hosting high-profile company similar to French President Emmanuel Macron, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken and British International Secretary David Cameron, it’s also economically depending on its a lot bigger neighbours.
Mongolia shares a 2,100-mile border with Russia and depends on its fuel large neighbor for 95 p.c of its gas. It tries to keep up robust ties with Moscow to assist steadiness relations with Beijing, which additionally has vital affect over Ulaanbaatar, shopping for virtually all of Mongolia’s commodity exports.
“Mongolia’s political elite finds it simpler to handle a safe and predictable relationship with Moscow” by internet hosting Mr. Putin, stated Munkhnaran Bayarlhagva, an unbiased geopolitical analyst who has labored at Mongolia’s Nationwide Safety Council.
“Ulaanbaatar is selecting to have a predictable relationship with Moscow and do injury management later,” Mr. Bayarlhagwa stated. “In spite of everything, geography cannot be modified.”
Mr Bayarlkhagva stated Mongolia had in all probability determined there could be no weak response to Mr Putin’s go to, given there was precedent for members of the Worldwide Prison Court docket defying the Rome Statute. In 2015, South Africa refused to arrest the then president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, throughout his go to to Johannesburg, although he was needed by the Worldwide Prison Court docket for alleged genocide and conflict crimes in Darfur. Final 12 months Johannesburg requested the ICC to launch Mr Putin from custody so he might attend the BRICS summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. When it was not offered, Mr Putin as an alternative selected to skip the summit.
Nonetheless, Mongolia’s resolution to ask Mr. Putin was condemned by human rights screens.
“Welcoming Putin, a fugitive from the Worldwide Prison Court docket, wouldn’t solely be an insult to the various victims of Russian forces’ crimes, however would additionally undermine the essential precept that nobody, regardless of how highly effective, is above the legislation,” Maria Elena Vignoli , senior worldwide justice adviser at Human Rights Watch, stated in a press release forward of the go to.
There are robust ties between the ruling Mongolian Folks’s Get together and Russia, a relationship that dates again greater than a century, when the Folks’s Get together helped create the socialist republic of Mongolia with the help of the Soviet Crimson Military. Even after Mongolia’s democratic revolution in 1990, ties between the Mongolian Folks’s Get together and Russia remained a supply of its political legitimacy.
The said purpose for Mr Putin’s go to – to mark the eighty fifth anniversary of the defeat of Japanese forces on the Battle of Khalkhin Gol by Soviet and Mongolian armies – offered an “ideological increase” for the Mongolian Folks’s Get together, Mr Bayarlhagva stated.
Mr Putin sought to emphasise his nation’s position as Mongolia’s protector in a written interview with the nation’s largest each day Unuudur, noting: “Greater than ten thousand Crimson Military troopers and commanders gave their lives within the combat for freedom and independence of Mongolia”.
No bulletins are anticipated on the proposed Energy of Siberia 2 pipeline, which might assist reroute Russian fuel provides which have gone to Europe by Mongolia to achieve China as an alternative. In August, Mongolia’s parliament voted to not embrace the pipeline in its funds for the following 4 years, which observers say is a sign that there’s little hope that it will likely be constructed.
A Western diplomat, who spoke on situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, stated the Mongolian authorities had summoned Western envoys to clarify its reasoning behind Mr. Putin’s go to. Amongst them was the necessity to safe extra provides of gas and electrical energy from Russia to forestall a repeat of the shortages the nation confronted final winter.
The diplomat stated Mongolian officers had been requested to not give Mr Putin a platform to advertise the conflict in Ukraine.
