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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with a regional governor via videoconference at the Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, October 21, 2022. war crimes.
Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
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Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with a regional governor via videoconference at the Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, October 21, 2022. war crimes.
Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes, including accusations that Russia forcibly abducted Ukrainian children.
The ICC also issued a warrant to Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Libova Belova.
The court said in a news release on Friday that the two were “responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of the population (children) and the war crime of illegal movement of the population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. It is said that
The move by the Hague Criminal Court was an important and rare step in calling for the arrest of a sitting world leader — even though analysts admitted it was unlikely to arrest Putin. regardless of.
Indeed, Moscow officials were quick to point out that Russia had never signed up as a party to the ICC.
“The question itself is outrageous and unacceptable,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “Russia, like many other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, so from a legal point of view the decision is not material to the Russian Federation.”
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin called the court’s decision “historic”.
Like the United States, Ukraine is also not a party to the ICC. However, Kostin said the Ukrainian government is cooperating with the courts regarding criminal investigations on its territory. he said he did.
A report released last month by Yale University researchers and the US State Department accused the Russian government of running an organized network of custody centers for thousands of Ukrainian children.
Russian officials have not denied that Ukrainian children have arrived in the country, but have turned a center for children into a large humanitarian program for abandoned and war-traumatized orphans. characterized as being part of
Court warrant is a ‘surprising move’
ICC President Piotr Hofmansky said the judge decided to release these warrants to deter further crimes.
“International law prohibits an occupying power from transferring civilians from their residential areas to other areas,” he said. “Children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Conventions.”
Experts seemed surprised by the news.
“I wished [this would happen]But I didn’t know it would be this fast,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Institute for Humanities.
“This is an amazing move by the court, which elevated it to the top of the Russian state,” he said. Rough Justice: The International Criminal Court in a World of Power Politics.
But Bosko warned that “an arrest warrant would not make sense any time soon, as the trial cannot proceed unless Putin is taken into custody, and that is unlikely to happen in the near future.” .
Putin is difficult to bring to justice, but human rights activists hailed the news as a big step forward.
“Today is a momentous 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 the first step toward ending the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in the Russia-Ukraine war for too long.”
Russia discusses Ukrainian adoption
Russia categorically denies allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Ukraine, but makes little secret about the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Putin hosted Children’s Rights Commissioner Lviva Belova at a meeting in the Kremlin in February, where the two met with Ukrainians in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including Lviva Belova’s new teenage son. Openly discussed the Russian adoption program for children.
A transcript of the conversation is posted on the Kremlin website.
“I heard you adopted a child from Mariupol, too?” I asked Putin.
“Yes.” “
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukraine suspended adoption, and child rights groups called on countries not to adopt Ukrainian children during the war.
Lvova-Belova said her commission would work to return the children to their Ukrainian families “whether in Ukraine or in another country, wherever they are” if biological relatives are found. said he would.
Putin said, “Exactly.”
For the US it’s complicated
Bosco, an international studies expert who has written about the ICC, says the court’s new case raises some uncomfortable questions for the United States.
US leaders have called Putin a ‘war criminal’ and accused Russia of ‘crimes against humanity’ in Ukraine, but the US has not signed the court’s law and has complicated relations. It is in.
“This will be another troubling moment for the United States because of the United States’ position that the ICC cannot prosecute citizens of non-member countries,” Bosco said.
In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the then-lead ICC prosecutor who was investigating allegations that US forces had committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of internal conflicts under the Biden administration. The Justice and State Departments have backed sharing information with an international tribunal on Russian atrocities, but the Pentagon has blocked it out of concern it would set a precedent that would allow prosecutions against Americans. there isaccording to new york times.
Alex Leff and Michele Kelemen reported from Washington, DC. Charles Maynes reported from Moscow.
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