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Vladimir Putin has arrived in Mongolia on his first go to to a member state of the Worldwide Legal Court docket because it issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged warfare crimes in Ukraine.
Forward of Putin’s arrival on Monday, the Kremlin dismissed strategies Mongolian authorities may arrest the Russian president, assured that Ulan Bator would ignore calls from Ukraine and worldwide rights organisations to fulfil its obligation as an ICC member.
Russian flags had been displayed within the Mongolian capital and troopers in brightly colored uniforms lined a purple carpet laid out to welcome Putin on the airport.
“We’re not nervous. We now have a superb dialogue with our Mongolian mates,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and his kids’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova final 12 months, designating them “allegedly chargeable for the warfare crime of illegal deportation” of youngsters from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
Mongolia has been a member of the ICC because it ratified the Rome Statute in 2002 and is meant to adjust to all arrest orders issued by the courtroom.
Final 12 months, Ulan Bator celebrated the appointment of the primary Mongolian decide to the courtroom’s bench. “By serving as a decide of the ICC for the primary time, Mongolia will make a big contribution to worldwide legislation,” its international ministry mentioned in a press release on the time.
Nonetheless, Putin’s go to follows an invite by Mongolian president Ukhnaa Khurelsukh to attend the eighty fifth anniversary of the Battles of Khalkhin Gol — Soviet-Japanese border clashes in 1939 — and the arrest warrant is predicted to go unheeded.
On Tuesday, Putin is scheduled to satisfy his Mongolian counterpart, attend anniversary occasions and go to an academic establishment earlier than ending the day with a proper banquet.
Kyiv condemned the go to and mentioned it could undermine the ICC.
“We name on the Mongolian authorities to execute the binding worldwide arrest warrant,” Ukraine’s international ministry mentioned, including it hoped Mongolia’s president was “conscious that Putin is a warfare felony”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukraine’s presidential administration, mentioned ignoring the warrant would present the world “there aren’t any guidelines”.
“Mongolia has to detain him,” Podolyak informed Ukrainian tv information on Friday. “Will it achieve this? Most definitely not. That’s why Putin’s go to is going on, to indicate that there aren’t any guidelines, no ICC, and no Rome statute.”
Putin didn’t attend a summit of the Brics group of countries final 12 months in South Africa, which can be an ICC member.
“Welcoming Putin, an ICC fugitive, wouldn’t solely be an affront 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 counsel at Human Rights Watch, mentioned in a press release.
Mongolian officers didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Monday.
A European Fee spokesperson mentioned the EU supported the ICC’s investigation into warfare crimes in Ukraine and referred to as on all states to co-operate, including it had “clearly” acknowledged its place to Mongolia via diplomatic channels.
Many nations in Central Asia have walked a tightrope since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as they search to steadiness relations with Russia, China and the west, an strategy they see as inevitable contemplating the area’s geography.
Mongolia shares a 3,500km-long border with Russia and regardless of efforts to diversify its financial system stays extremely depending on its neighbour, together with for about 30 per cent of imports and all of its petroleum merchandise.
Whereas not supporting Russia over Ukraine, Mongolia has abstained from voting on the UN to sentence the invasion.
The US and Australian ambassadors in Ulan Bator on Monday posted statements on the social media website X in help of Ukraine and criticising Russia’s aggression.
Putin’s go to to Mongolia comes amid uncertainty over the destiny of Energy of Siberia 2, a pipeline that, if constructed, would ship 50bn cubic metres of Russian gasoline throughout the nation to China.
The Mongolian authorities didn’t point out Energy of Siberia 2 or every other new gasoline pipelines with Russia in its newest five-year improvement plan submitted to the parliament final month.
In feedback to Mongolia’s Unuudur newspaper forward of his journey, Putin described the nation as a “shut neighbour and previous buddy”. He talked about Energy of Siberia 2 as one in all a number of shared initiatives, however described it as nonetheless on the “design and survey” stage.
Extra reporting by Daria Mosolova in Brussels
