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Russian President Vladimir Putin entered Mongolia this week without being arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) — a major blow to the institution's legitimacy.
Putin arrived in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar for a state visit late Monday evening, when he was greeted by Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh and flanked by an honor guard.
Putin's visit is ostensibly to celebrate the 1939 victory over Japan at the Battle of Khalkhin by Soviet-Mongolian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, accompanied by Mongolia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh, walks past honor guards upon arrival at the airport in Ulaanbaatar. (Photo by NATALIA GUBERNATOROVA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Putin will be spending four days in Mongolia meeting with national leaders. The attention to Putin’s latest trip derives from the fact that Mongolia is a member of the ICC, which in March 2023, issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children.
Putin has carefully avoided visiting countries that are signatories of the Rome Statute, thus making them subject to ICC jurisdiction, until now.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during Russian-Mongolian talks in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Putin is having a four-day trip to the regions of Eastern Russia and Mongolia. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
Russia – along with other major nations such as the U.S., China, India and Israel – are not signatories and thus do not answer to the ICC, but any visit to a Rome Statute signatory should subject Putin to arrest.
The Kremlin has dismissed any speculation of Putin facing arrest during the trip, despite Mongolia's obligation to act.
"There are no worries, we have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, according to the Moscow Times. He added that "all aspects of the visit were carefully prepared."
People holding Ukranian national flags and a banner take part in a protest ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital city. (Photo by BYAMBASUREN BYAMBA-OCHIR/AFP via Getty Images)
In a statement, Ukraine referred to Putin as a war criminal and stressed that kidnapping children is just "one of the many crimes" that Putin has committed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
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"These individuals are guilty of an aggressive war against Ukraine, atrocities against the Ukrainian people," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on Telegram.
"We call on the Mongolian authorities to execute the mandatory international arrest warrant and hand over Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague," the ministry added.
Fox News Digital's Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
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