In a decision that has infuriated the Kremlin, the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of the forcible deportation of children from Ukraine.
After Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan, Putin is the only other sitting president for whom an ICC arrest warrant has been issued.
His forces have been regularly accused of mistreatment during Russia’s year-long invasion of its neighbour Ukraine, notably by a U.N.-mandated investigative committee, which last week alleged that soldiers forced children to watch loved ones being raped.
Moscow has consistently refuted claims that its troops engaged in crimes during the invasion, which it refers to as a special military operation.
Although while it is doubtful that Putin would appear in court anytime soon, the warrant means that if he travels to any countries that are ICC members, he might be detained and transported to The Hague, setting off an angry reaction in Moscow.
“Yankees, hands off Putin!” commented parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a close supporter of the president, on Telegram, suggesting the action was evidence of Western “hysteria”.
“We regard any attacks on the President of the Russian Federation as aggression against our country,” he said.
Residents in Moscow were taken aback by the news.
The ICC issued the warrant on suspicion of illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of people from Ukrainian territory to the Russian Federation. On the same charges, the court issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
Russia has not hidden a programme that has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but has disguised it as a humanitarian effort to protect orphans and children abandoned in conflict zones.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Russia is not a party to the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russia found the ICC’s questions “outrageous and unacceptable,” and that any decisions of the court were “null and void” with regard to Russia.
