The International Criminal Court ( CPI ) made President Vladimir Putin a wanted man.
The court accuses him of being responsible for war crimes and focused his requests on the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
He claims that the crimes were committed in Ukraine from February 24, 2022, when Russia launched its large-scale invasion.
In a statement, the ICC indicated that it had reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin had committed the criminal acts directly or in collaboration with other people.
The Court also said that Mr. Putin had not used his presidential powers to end the expulsion of children.
The Russian Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same facts.
In the past, she has openly spoken of efforts to indoctrinate Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
Last September, Ms. Lvova-Belova complained that some children taken from the city of Mariupol « spoke badly of the [ Russian president ], said horrible things and sang the Ukrainian anthem ».
She also claimed to have adopted a 15-year-old boy from Marioupol.
Moscow has denied these allegations and qualified the scandalous « mandates. ».
Human Rights Watch says « mandates send a clear message : ordering or tolerating serious crimes against civilians can lead to a prison cell in The Hague ».
Russia is not a member of the ICC and suspects are not expected to be delivered.
However, the arrest warrant will make the Russian president an international outcast and make his travel difficult, particularly in the signatory countries of the ICC.
ICC members are required to arrest anyone indicted by the Court.
The arrest warrant, a surprise ?
Incongruous calm reigns within the International Criminal Court.
It is one of the most ambitious cases in which the ICC has ever engaged.
The question of whether and when the ICC would identify the suspects has been the subject of much speculation.
The ICC said it first considered keeping the arrest warrants secret, but decided to make them public in case it prevented further crimes.
Reactions in Russia and elsewhere
The reactions follow one another at a frantic pace.
Russian opposition leaders welcomed the announcement, Alexei Navalny’s close ally, a imprisoned Kremlin critic, having tweeted « wow ! ».
« An arrest warrant against Putin ! Yes, it is a symbolic step. But what does it matter ! », he wrote.
Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev goes so far as to compare Vladimir Putin’s arrest warrant to « toilet paper ».
« There is no need to explain where this paper should be used », he said on Twitter, accompanied by an emoji of toilet paper.
The man who was president of Russia between two terms of Mr. Putin and who then held the post of prime minister for a long time, was very active and supported the war in Ukraine.
At a brief conference call with journalists this evening, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, reacted as follows to the ICC’s arrest warrant against President Putin :
« The very question [ raised by the CPI ] is scandalous and unacceptable. Russia, like several other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and any such decision concerning Russia is therefore null and void from a legal point of view ».
Mr. Peskov did not wish to answer any other questions on the subject.
The Attorney General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, said the decision was historic « for Ukraine and the entire international legal system », while the chief of staff to the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak welcomed the decision as « just the start ».
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the ICC was right to issue the warrant and that Mr. Putin should be « tried for the crime of aggression ».
Jonathan Leader Maynard, a lecturer in international politics at King’s College London, said that it was unlikely that the mandates would bother Mr. Putin too much, because the « ICC relies on government cooperation to arrest people, and the Russian government will clearly not cooperate in this regard ».
But he added that it could have an impact on Mr. Putin’s freedom to travel around the world, as other signatory nations of the ICC could assist in his arrest.
