Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia on Tuesday, but his hosts showed no signs of responding to calls to arrest him despite an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
It will be Putin's first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since the court issued his warrant nearly 18 months ago. Ahead of the visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the European Union said it was concerned Mongolia might not enforce the warrant. Putin's spokesman said last week: The Kremlin was not worried.
The warrant puts the Mongolian government in a difficult position. After decades of communism with close ties to the Soviet Union, Mongolia transitioned to democracy in the 1990s and has forged ties with the United States, Japan and other new partners. But it remains economically dependent on its much larger and more powerful neighbors, Russia and China. Russia supplies Mongolia with oil and gas. Landlocked countries It consumes a large amount of fuel and a significant amount of electricity.
The ICC has held Putin responsible. Child abduction from UkraineFighting has been fierce in the region for two and a half years. Member states are required by the court's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, to detain suspects if an arrest warrant is issued, but Mongolia needs to maintain good relations with Russia, and the court lacks the mechanisms to enforce warrants.
The Russian leader was received in the capital Ulaanbaatar's central square by an honor guard dressed in bright red and blue uniforms modelled on those of the bodyguards of Genghis Khan, the 13th-century ruler who founded the Mongol Empire.
He and Mongolian President Kleriskhu Ukhna walked up red-carpeted stairs and bowed before a statue of Genghis Khan before entering the Government Palace for their talks.
Police detained a small number of protesters who tried to raise the Ukrainian flag before the welcoming ceremony.
The two governments signed agreements on feasibility studies and designs for the upgrade of a power plant in Ulaanbaatar, as well as ensuring continued supplies of aviation fuel to Mongolia. Putin also outlined plans to develop a railway system between the two countries.
Kuleshukh extended an invitation to the Mongolian president to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in late October, an invitation that he accepted, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The EU expressed concern on Monday that the ICC warrant may not be enforced and said it shared its concerns with Mongolian authorities.
“Mongolia, like every country, has the right to develop its international relations in accordance with its national interests,” European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Maslari said, but added that “Mongolia has been a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court since 2002 and is therefore subject to the legal obligations that come with it.”
More than 50 Russians abroad have signed an open letter calling on the Mongolian government to “detain Vladimir Putin immediately upon his arrival,” including Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was released from a Russian prison in August. The largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in an online statement on Tuesday that the arrest warrant against Putin was “illegal” and called those seeking to carry it out “madmen.”
Putin is visiting Mongolia for the first time in five years to take part in ceremonies marking the 85th anniversary of the Soviet-Mongolian victory over Japanese forces in Manchuria, northeast China. Thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed in months of fighting along the Manchuria-Mongolia border in 1939.
“I'm very happy about President Putin's visit to Mongolia,” said retired economist Yansanjav Demdendorj, citing Russia's role against Japan. “If you think about that war, it was the Russians who helped liberate Mongolia.”
Putin has made multiple overseas trips in recent months to counter international isolation over his country's invasion of Ukraine. Visiting China in MayI went on a trip North Korea and Vietnam in June and Meeting in Kazakhstan in July Of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
However, Kenneth Roth, former director of Human Rights Watch, called Putin's visit to Mongolia a “sign of weakness,” writing on Twitter that “a visit to a country of just 3.4 million people that sits in Russia's shadow is all the Russian leader can muster.”
Last year, Putin attended the BRICS summit in Johannesburg by video link after the South African government objected to him attending. South Africa, an ICC member state, has been criticized by activists and the main opposition party for failing to arrest Sudan's then-president in 2015. Omar Al-Bashir During the visit.
Enkhgerel Seded, a researcher at a Moscow university, said countries with historically friendly relations would not arrest a head of state on an official visit.
“Our country has obligations to the international community,” she said, “but … I think that even in this case, arrests are not appropriate.”
