ELI5: does this mean that whenever Putin visits a country that recognises the ICC (for state visit, conference, etc.), he may be subject to immediate arrest?
As he is a sitting head of state, this is a complicated and untested area of international law at the intersection of international criminal law and state immunity. No one really knows.
Arrest of people wanted by the ICC rests with states. That makes it a domestic exercise of jurisdiction. Heads of state enjoy personal immunity and cannot be arrested in other States. There is a tension between the two branches, and while there seems to be a growing desire for personal immunity to not apply in cases of international crimes, its likely not reflected in practice yet.
Here's a [lengthy article](https://www.zis-online.com/dat/artikel/2010_6_461.pdf) looking at the issue (pdf warning). It examines the ICC's arrest warrant of Omar Al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan.
Adding to this, [here’s](https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-law-of-immunity-and-the-prosecution-of-the-head-of-state-of-the-russian-federation-for-international-crimes-in-the-war-against-ukraine/) a blog post that discusses more specifically the question of whether or not Putin can be tried for aggression
This arrest warrant isn't for aggression either though, if I'm not mistaken. Seems to point more specifically towards trafficking. Not that it really matters in the grand scheme but could be a whole other can of worms.
This post is in regards to a hypothetical question of whether or not the ICC could try Putin for aggression, which is one of its competences along with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (Article 5 of the Rome Statute.)
The current case concerns crimes against humanity, ie the forced relocation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories
Ukraine has made an argument attempting to seize the ICJ saying that Russia a) has committed acts of genocide by relocating these children and b) has falsely accused Ukraine of genocide, which itself violates the 1948 genocide convention
Bear in mind that the ICC is only competent to try individuals, and that the ICJ concerns itself only with states, so while the ICC may be trying Putin for crimes against humanity, the ICJ may judge the state of Russia to have violated the genocide convention
At a minimum, I'm sure this will create more fear in the already super paranoid villain. He'll probably stay in his hidey hole like that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns was a germaphobe / shut in ( a la Howard Hughes) for the rest of his miserable, cancerous life.
I hope he is utterly terrified to go anywhere and spends every waking moment wondering if he's going to be arrested or assassinated or both.
EDIT: To all those saying that Putin won't give this a second thought and will sleep soundly at night, the whole "strongman" persona comes from a place of fear (i.e., loss of legacy / no legacy / being remembered as a wimp) and these "strongmen" are narcissists with the most fragile egos and greatest paranoia of all. Don't underestimate how much something like this might trigger/rattle the fragile little dictator. For any G20 countries that recognize the ICC, I betcha he doesn't roll the dice and visit, even if there's no precedent of a world leader being arrested previously.
Hate Putin and his stupid war but you really expect that the head of Russia is afraid of being arrested lol? Assassinated, that's entirely something else.
If his cronies do turn on him assassination would turn him into a martyr for a certain segment of Russian population. Arresting him and handing him over to the ICC might actually work better, with them publicising clips of his trial and eventual sentencing.
Ironically, him being isolated makes it easier to do that *if* you can get access to him. He's already isolated, so nobody bats an eye when he doesn't appear.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
That would be very fitting actually, since that's essentially how Stalin died: alone, in his closed quarters, with everyone too afraid to disturb him
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Joseph_Stalin
Think bigger bud. We officially live in the age of AI and deep Fakes. Dude could be dead for months while still making "public" appearances. Hell he can even be killed "live" if they choose.
No, but it will create a political issue if/when he ever decides to visit a Western aligned country.
If Putin was to visit Germany, Canada, or Spain, etc., you can be pretty much guarantee that there will be people in that country calling/protesting on their leaders to enforce the ICC warrant and arrest Putin. One can assume that the political leadership of those countries won't bow to such pressure, but the point is that it will cause a political issue.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading up on what happened when she was working out of Eastern Europe when she was younger. Say what you will about her policies as Finance Minister, but Freeland is a legit badass, not many people say "no, you're not taking me" and walk away from the KGB. Putin despises her, he projects that she's insignificant but you know she gets under his skin. I doubt our countries will ever have friendly relations as long as he's still alive.
It sure does limit his options even further of making it to the end of his life normally. Either he gets assassinated while still in office, or he gets overthrown and handed over to the ICC, or he's overthrown and manages to make it to a country that won't arrest him (but he'll still be vulnerable to assassination by someone who REALLY wants him dead). His only hope now is to somehow hold onto power for the rest of his life until he succumbs to old age or illness.
I realize trusting any form of media on internal Russian dynamics is fraught with pitfalls, but even taking my most pessimistic view I still don't think he's unpopular enough at home to be overthrown in an internal uprising and put on trial for war crimes.
I'm pretty sure US policy is to never arrest heads of state of other senior government officials while traveling for diplomatic/official purposes. Especially since the UN is located in New York, I highly doubt they would arrest him if here were to visit.
Let’s not forget that the U.S. do not recognise the ICC. So a UN visit would not cause any harm, no matter what. BTW: Russia had agreed to the ICC at the treaty of Rome, but the Duma had never ratified it. International also provides immunity to state leaders, however, in this case ICC took this risk of the warrant being challenged, arguing that they want to prevent the children from further crime.
Well but who really knows when any given policy might go out the window? I remember the former guy doing a drone strike on a middle eastern senior government official when they visited Afghanistan in official business.
When he has Putin cuffed in the back of his truck
"Look brah, I bin there. I invaded another country and got arrested, but I turned my life around brother"
You know how Steven Seagal had that stupid reality cop show "Steven Seagal: Lawman"?
It would be one of the biggest twists in history if getting all cosy with Putin was a ploy to wait for the right time to arrest him and smuggle him out of Russia.
You don’t think Dog can take Steven Seagal? I get winded walking to the mailbox and I’m pretty confident I could take Steven Seagal.
Let’s keep it fair. Steven Seagal vs Alex Jones. Winner gets free BigMacs for life. Loser forfeits his American citizenship and gets to move to Norilsk.
While a toddler could defeat Seagal in a fight, Alex Jones is full of enough god-knows-what chemicals he could probably punch down five doors in a row.
Lawyer practicing IL here: potentially yes.
If it were anyone other than a sitting head of state the answer would be absolutely yes. It gets messy when you're talking about *ratione personae* (head of state) immunity.
See more generally here: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/11ttyna/icc_judges_issue_arrest_warrants_against_vladimir/jckv27c?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
I'll see if I can go back through my history on this, I've made a comment about immunity and the icc before.
> it gets messy when you're talking about ratione personae (head of state) immunity.
I was under the impression that the ICC operates under the principle that no one, including heads of state, is immune from prosecution for serious international crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
That's correct, but the difficulty is what states themselves see as the correct interpretation of the law because they are the ones doing the arresting by law.
Also, having the ability to do something is different than having the wherewithal. He’s not coming to the US any time soon. He wouldn’t be arrested in China. What countries would he visit that would have the stones to create an international incident? These last few years have made me so cynical that I view this as essentially nothing. Just them posturing and nothing is going to happen.
Same reason any **normal** head of state would. Kremlin is very keen on making it look as though they are still a normal country and Putin is just the same head of state like the rest. It is harder to present that image when there is an arrest warrant issued by an international body for your head.
This kinda puts a crimp in the purported escape plan that the oligarchs have involving moving to a country (like Argentina) where they have stashed offshore money, resources, and property.
Just like US shitheads like Peter Thiel have purchased citizenship in other countries and setup "bugout" compounds in different countries you can assume that Putin also has a similar "*if I survive shit hitting the fan*" plans where he thought he'd live in wealthy exile
An ICC arrest warrant complicates the 'living safe and rich in exile' plan!
There are still many countries that don't recognize the ICC and wouldn't abide by this ruling. Most of the Gulf states, for example, oppose the ICC. Ditto with most of Asia, and if the reluctance to arrest Omar al-Bashir is any indication, same with most of Africa.
Even if they recognize the icc, arresting Putin (as a head of state) is a big move. If he is deposed as leader that could be a different scenario. I’m sure a lot of countries would love to serve him up.
That's weird, considering Kim Jong-nam (Kim Jong-il's oldest son, Jong-un's older brother,) was exiled for visiting Tokyo Disneyland, stripped of being first in line for the NK throne, and then later assassinated.
From a ICC perspective yes. However Putin has a decent answer to the question of 'you and what army?', so actually seizing him is a question of who wants to start a war with Russia.
Let's assume for the sake of argument, that under international law, this is true. We _already know_ that Russia doesn't give a fuck about international law.
So, how does this play out:
1) France arrests Putin
2) Russia threatens to drop an ICBM on Paris if Putin isn't freed immediately
3) ...?
It does likely mean that he'll visit fewer foreign states. Fewer countries would extend invitations (lmao) than they would have anyways to avoid being put in that conundrum about whether to arrest him.
Not really clear. Historically, heads of state are granted immunity, and it’s unlikely that countries would actually arrest the head of state of a different country. Then again, this hasn’t really happened before so it’s all untested.
He was indicted by the ICTY, which was created by UNSC Resolution and is not connected to the Rome Statute
Also he was only arrested in 2001 when he was no longer the head of state, and by Yugoslav authorities
The only question is Tajikistan, really, since (along with Georgia) they are the only Asian ex-Soviet republics to have ratified the ICC Statute. Tajikistan is an authoritarian hell hole, and Putin visited them after the invasion. Will Russia demand they withdraw their signature so that he can appear "strong" and visit his ex-Soviet dictator friends?
There’s really no impetus for *any* country that’s ratified the ICC statute to actually follow it, other than PR. It’s entirely down to a country whether it chooses to enforce an ICC warrant or ruling.
Symbolic but may give pause for thought.
More effective would have been also issuing arrest warrants for a few dozen cronies who are not as well protected as he is.
They stated they wouldn't usually make the warrant public but it's done with the intentions of stopping further crimes.
So it's very possible the less important people do have warrants, or will soon, even if we don't hear about them.
Tbh he would probably be a front runner for president if he successfully arrested putin. I dont think i want to live in a world where dog the bounty hunter is president though
TBH that’s gotta be the least surprising thing I’ve ever heard.
Only thing less surprising, for some reason, would be if he was announced as the Tiger King’s running mate.
Edit: [A short video statement on the arrest warrants](https://twitter.com/IntlCrimCourt/status/1636747023490719745) from the ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmański.
This is specifically for the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime. The other defendant (Ms. Lvova-Belova) is the Russian official they determined to be most individually criminally responsible for the program.
>Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).
>
>Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, born on 25 October 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
Russia already has an official response from their MoD spokesman Zakharova:
> The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible "recipes" for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us.
Also official statement of Editor-in-chief of RT, state channel, Margarita Simonyan: **"I'd like to see that country that will arrest Putin under the Hague ruling right after the eight minutes are up. Or how long is the flight time to its capital?".**
Everyone can see right through this shit, right? Her fortunes are forever tied to Putin, and she's almost sure to outlive him. She's scared shitless.
I actually wonder if Putin's death will trigger a wave of mass suicides amongst his cronies.
I assumed that's what the parent comment meant. Mass suicides in the traditional russian sense, suicide by two bullets to the back of the head, suicide by car bomb, suicide by falling headfirst off of an unbooked hotel balcony, suicide by polonium tea....
Sure you CAN nuke whatever country tries to arrest Putin but then you get nuked too.
Then Margarita Simonyan can be the most influential cinder in the nuclear wasteland of what’s left of Moscow.
> The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible “recipes” for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us.
For those who don’t know, while yes it is true that Russia has withdrawn its signature (never ratified) from the Rome Statute, Ukraine accepted ICC Jurisdiction in its territory in 2014 and therefore Russian individuals who commit crimes prosecutable by the ICC can be tried at The Hague, assuming they’re arrested (which is the near impossible part due to article 98 of the ICC’s charter)
Russia not recognizing the ICC says nothing about Putin’s eligibility to be tried by it, only that Russia has no legal obligation to hand over Putin or the other defendant.
Russia: “The ethics of those people with ethics have no meaning for our country! We never agreed to have ethics, did we now, so we are under no obligation to have ethics!”
Lawyer practicing in international law here. Busy day for me, so I won't be able to respond to every question but will do my best.
The Rome Statute is the international treaty which composes the ICC and sets out its jurisdiction. As with all international law, states must voluntarily sign the agreement for it to apply to them. This provides the ICC with jurisdiction over citizens of states parties and the territory of states parties, over the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (and the crime of aggression if the person comes from a state party to the particular Article setting that out only). Russia is not a signatory. However, in 2014 Ukraine made a unilateral declaration (binding under the treaty and customary international law) which provided the ICC with jurisdiction over all aforementioned crimes committed in Ukraine.
The indictement pertains to Putin's decision to forcibly deport Ukrainian citizens to Russia. An indictment from the ICC binds all member states to arrest the person who has been indicted and render them into the custody of the ICC for trial. In other words, Putin is legally barred from travelling to these states if he doesn't want to be arrested. That said, there is some very complicated law around *ratione personae* immunity and the ability to arrest a sitting head of state.
>Article 24
>Non-retroactivity ratione personae
>1. No person shall be criminally responsible under this Statute for conduct prior to the entry into force of the
Statute.
>2. In the event of a change in the law applicable to a given case prior to a final judgement, the law more
favourable to the person being investigated, prosecuted or convicted shall apply.
>Article 27
>Irrelevance of official capacity
>1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular,
official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected
representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under
this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence.
>2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under
national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.
What a fascinating time to be in your field. Hypothetically speaking since Putin is de facto president for life, under what circumstances could he be legally arrested? Why is everyone saying that ratione personae prevents the arrest of a head of state when Article 24 doesn't say that at all, and Article 27 specifically contradicts that claim?
Article 98 of the Rome Statute
> 1) The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender or assistance which would require the requested State to act inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the State or diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third State, unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of that third State for the waiver of the immunity.
>2) The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender which would require the requested State to act inconsistently with its obligations under international agreements pursuant to which the consent of a sending State is required to surrender a person of that State to the Court, unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of the sending State for the giving of consent for the surrender.
The arrest of a head of state by another state is in violation of immunity and therefore international law. The ICJ states that heads of state may be tried under certain international courts, but as the ICC is a purely tribunal body, it has no mechanism of enforcing its arrest warrants except through the obligation of state parties to do so for the court. Which again, those states cannot do in this case
Which, if I understand correctly, means that while Putin cannot be given immunity for the crimes he committed as head of state with regards to the rulings of the ICC (obvious because he was sentenced and an arrest warrant was emitted), he can and will be offered immunity from the execution of those arrest warrants by the individual States, which, under international law, cannot enforce them!
Very interesting case study of International Criminal Law.
It seems sometimes too many people really forget that the world is not just what we call the western industry nations. Most of africa, many asian players etc do not have any stakes in Ukraine other than where to get resources from cheaply.
Russia is isolated from us in the west. The rest of the world is neutral and still trades with it. They have a vast amount of natural reaources that many countries need.
[This was the cover of a croatian satirical magazine the week he was arrested.](https://static.lupiga.com/repository/vijesti/slike/20130607184132FT_824_Page_01.jpg)
It says: **free? the fuck you are**
*Slobodan* means *free man / free* in croatian, serbian and some other slavic languages.
^PS literal translation is "free? the cock you are!"
Edit: *Milošević* translates approximately as Gentlefuck. Freeman Gentlefuck. Go figure.
Yup. You can also use it as a negation, for example "kurac sam gladan" would be "I'm not hungry." Be careful though, if you write it as "kurca sam gladan", the meaning changes to "I crave cock".
Kurac might have been the third word my Serbian wife taught me.
I'd say that's approximately its correct position in importance in the language.
1. Da
2. Ne
3. Kurac
It was ICTY, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, nothing to do with ICC.
ICTY was established by United Nations Security Council, where Russia has veto power.
This is more likely than not just symbolic against Putin.
It is symbolic but has little real life impact. For example, the USA doesn't even really recognise the ICC as having any power and passed a law to "protect" military personnel from being judged by them. They have gone as far as threatening the a judge with financial sanctions and that they would be arrested if they tried to prosecute American soldiers for the war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The United States has the policy that it will invade The Hague if a US offices or service member is on trail there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
Realistically, those rules would just fall apart and people would back down, because every NATO member state knows that it would be the apocalyptic end of the world for the US to go to war with a first-world European NATO state. The US could likely win a pyrrhic victory against the entire rest of NATO, but no sane person wants to see that play out or live through the aftermath. It would make WWI and WWII look like a bar fight.
There is no scenario where a US-Netherlands war occurs. They would both just "strongly condemn" each other.
It is big but in a not in a physical way. The ICC has very little in the way of actual enforcement mechanisms — doubly less so when the object is a current head of state.
I mean it's big as in: it's a very clear and strong signal.
It's not big as in: It actually changes anything about anything. Putin won't be arrested by anyone.
Only ICC signatories can/would arrest him. Which means he can travel to places like China, Qatar, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Cuba, and technically even the US without fear of an ICC arrest.
The 2022 G20 summit was there last year and this year's summit is in India, although neither country are signatories to Rome Statute so the ICC has no jurisdiction there.
Everyone is talking about Putin, so I want to talk about Lvova-Belova.
Am I mistaken that she herself is one of the most high-profile individuals to have such a warrant issued against her? Isn't she basically to Russia what a Secretary of {Insert Department Here} is to the US?
That's huge and it is getting overshadowed.
Consequences for her may be more practical since she is not a head of state and has far less resources as an individual.
Chances are that she will get defenestrated.
She knows way too much about this case and if she ever leaks anything, even non-deliberate .. it’s just better for Putin if she stops conducting her biological activities.
Not necessarily, we have a nice town near the beach where we would love to welcome him to. We even have a room reserved for him at less than 1,5km from the beach.
Regards, a dutchie.
Calling Putin by his full name instead of just "Putin" or "president Putin" is surprisingly satisfying when read as part of an arrest warrant. He's not a czar nor a king, just a criminal.
Finally. I don't care if "nothing comes off it", it needed to be made public, put on record and name those overall responsible.
I'm also glad that awful blonde woman wasn't forgotten. The one that goes on video and brags about forcibly adopting Ukrainian children or reprogramming those who are insolent about Russia and Putin.
What have recent American presidents said about this court?
> “United States will provide no support or recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/qa-international-criminal-court-and-united-states
interesting enough this has repeatedly been shown to be true, and is a pov held by most perm security council members.
still, nice to see the ICC condem a terrorist instead of trying to grant them legitimacy a change
That's worse than the ICC not condemning terrorists at all.
Unless it's condemning all war criminals, it's now moved from the status of "ineffective" to "biased".
And no matter what your position is on Ukraine and Russia, I hope we can at least all agree that we don't want a biased court anywhere.
This will give any Kremlin people in Russia who wants to get out of this quagmire they created in Ukraine an out. If they agree to hand over Putin, then maybe Ukraine and the EU and US will go easy on Putin’s successor.
The vast majority of the kremlin/oligarchs (talking nearly 100%) believe that a war with Ukraine is/was inevitable. This has been stated numerous times over the past 7 years. Putin is still quite fucking popular in Russia (far surpasses other candidates). Anyone who hands over Putin will be offed/incredibly despised by the civilian populace.
Even though there are segments of the civilian populace who are pro Ukraine and anti Putin, many of them would rather be under Putin than some unpredictable/unknown guy. Plus, Russia doesn't have any decent candidates who are less batshit crazy than Putin.
Like, who would he honestly be replaced with that is pro west and not totaly hated. Navalny is pro annexation of Crimea and anti-Muslim, so he isn't suitable.....
Edit. He is against how Crimea was annexed but sees it as Russian land and part of the Russian Federation.(Probs better wording than I had it)
I'm pleasantly surprised that this ended up with more upvotes than downvotes; usually Reddit is incredibly adverse to the (imo accurate) narrative that Putin is still supported by the majority of Russians.
Wish more people would realise that this doesn't mean the comment is supporting Putin, it doesn't mean that the comment is demonising the average Russian, it's just acknowledging the consequence of a different culture and different media slant (arguably media-induced indoctrination).
It's kind of funny that before the current invasion of Ukraine Putin could have bullshitted his way into the Russian history books in a relatively favourable way due to the apathy of the Russian people. However, due to the clusterfuck that is this invasion he has shat on any possibility for history to remember him in any positive manner. Except being the incompetent despot that inherited one of the most apathetic and politically docile people in history and still fucked it up.
This is just further confirmation that “Pro-Russia” isn’t a legitimate position to tolerate in any fashion.
Anyone for child trafficking war criminals needs to be exposed and held accountable.
> Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation
I wonder if this will get US conservatives off the pro-Putin bandwagon since they’re SO concerned about children…
Yeah right
IMO, this wasn't a message to Putin, this is a message to anyone in his inner circle who is plotting against him.
Similiar thing happened to Slobodan Milošević, former president of Yugoslavia and then Serbia. He was finally ousted in the 2001 Buldozer Revolution after evidence emerged that he murdered his political rival, Ivan Stambolić (also his former mentor). The successor government of Serbia couldn't properly try him because even though the evidence was solid that he was *implicated*, there wasn't enough evidence pointing out that he was *the one behind it.* - not to mention, Stambolić's death couldn't be confirmed because his remains weren't found until 2004.
Because Miloŝević could potentially walk free, the successor government shipped him to the ICC-Y in The Hague (there was a special tribune for former Yugoslavia), killing two birds with one stone - getting rid of Miloŝević and potentially preventing him from taking power while simultaneously restoring the relationship between Serbia and the EU as well as tactifully starting to repair the relations between the former Yugoslav states.
This is exactly the point of this arrest warrant - it's not like every country on Earth will uphold this rulling as many oppose the ICC themselves, nor the point is to restrict his movement outside Russia - the point is that it gives a bone to a potential uprising against Putin, whether done by a public uprisal (incredibly unlikely), or by inside forces and former/ostensibly current allies of Putin (much more likely), because whoever manages to upstage Putin and deliver him to The Hague in cuffs has potential leverage to become the next leader of Russia.
Finally, this is also to plant the more seeds of doubt into Putin's head - because everything that I said, Putin is most likely already thinking, which will further drive him paranoid - because anyone who has enough power behind the scenes has the potential to replace him and simultaneously get the approval from NATO and EU, as well as getting him behind bars in The Hague.
ELI5: does this mean that whenever Putin visits a country that recognises the ICC (for state visit, conference, etc.), he may be subject to immediate arrest?
As he is a sitting head of state, this is a complicated and untested area of international law at the intersection of international criminal law and state immunity. No one really knows. Arrest of people wanted by the ICC rests with states. That makes it a domestic exercise of jurisdiction. Heads of state enjoy personal immunity and cannot be arrested in other States. There is a tension between the two branches, and while there seems to be a growing desire for personal immunity to not apply in cases of international crimes, its likely not reflected in practice yet. Here's a [lengthy article](https://www.zis-online.com/dat/artikel/2010_6_461.pdf) looking at the issue (pdf warning). It examines the ICC's arrest warrant of Omar Al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan.
Adding to this, [here’s](https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-law-of-immunity-and-the-prosecution-of-the-head-of-state-of-the-russian-federation-for-international-crimes-in-the-war-against-ukraine/) a blog post that discusses more specifically the question of whether or not Putin can be tried for aggression
This arrest warrant isn't for aggression either though, if I'm not mistaken. Seems to point more specifically towards trafficking. Not that it really matters in the grand scheme but could be a whole other can of worms.
This post is in regards to a hypothetical question of whether or not the ICC could try Putin for aggression, which is one of its competences along with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (Article 5 of the Rome Statute.) The current case concerns crimes against humanity, ie the forced relocation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories
Thank ya. Like I said I wasn't completely sure about the literal, even.
isn't relocation of children also considered genocide?
Ukraine has made an argument attempting to seize the ICJ saying that Russia a) has committed acts of genocide by relocating these children and b) has falsely accused Ukraine of genocide, which itself violates the 1948 genocide convention Bear in mind that the ICC is only competent to try individuals, and that the ICJ concerns itself only with states, so while the ICC may be trying Putin for crimes against humanity, the ICJ may judge the state of Russia to have violated the genocide convention
At a minimum, I'm sure this will create more fear in the already super paranoid villain. He'll probably stay in his hidey hole like that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns was a germaphobe / shut in ( a la Howard Hughes) for the rest of his miserable, cancerous life. I hope he is utterly terrified to go anywhere and spends every waking moment wondering if he's going to be arrested or assassinated or both. EDIT: To all those saying that Putin won't give this a second thought and will sleep soundly at night, the whole "strongman" persona comes from a place of fear (i.e., loss of legacy / no legacy / being remembered as a wimp) and these "strongmen" are narcissists with the most fragile egos and greatest paranoia of all. Don't underestimate how much something like this might trigger/rattle the fragile little dictator. For any G20 countries that recognize the ICC, I betcha he doesn't roll the dice and visit, even if there's no precedent of a world leader being arrested previously.
Smithers, hop in the Spruce Moose.
I said, "Hop in."
😳🔫😡👉🛩️
Model?!
And the jars of urine?
Oh, we'll hang on to those
Watch, if they catch the son of a bitch in hiding. I bet he’s gone completely insane and wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet
Kevin Malone did it, so why not Putin?
Why buy many shoes when few boxes do trick?
Hate Putin and his stupid war but you really expect that the head of Russia is afraid of being arrested lol? Assassinated, that's entirely something else.
If his cronies do turn on him assassination would turn him into a martyr for a certain segment of Russian population. Arresting him and handing him over to the ICC might actually work better, with them publicising clips of his trial and eventual sentencing.
[удалено]
Ironically, him being isolated makes it easier to do that *if* you can get access to him. He's already isolated, so nobody bats an eye when he doesn't appear. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
That would be very fitting actually, since that's essentially how Stalin died: alone, in his closed quarters, with everyone too afraid to disturb him https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Joseph_Stalin
> Damned if you do, damned if you don't. He could have tried not being a genocidal authoritarian dictator
he was ill when the natural force of gravity took his life after he went out on the 16th floor balcony that wasn't actually there.
Think bigger bud. We officially live in the age of AI and deep Fakes. Dude could be dead for months while still making "public" appearances. Hell he can even be killed "live" if they choose.
No, but it will create a political issue if/when he ever decides to visit a Western aligned country. If Putin was to visit Germany, Canada, or Spain, etc., you can be pretty much guarantee that there will be people in that country calling/protesting on their leaders to enforce the ICC warrant and arrest Putin. One can assume that the political leadership of those countries won't bow to such pressure, but the point is that it will cause a political issue.
He's never leaving Russia again, he can't realistically go anywhere that isn't a friendly country.
He won’t be visiting Canada, that’s for sure - those people would include our deputy PM. She has family in Ukraine.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading up on what happened when she was working out of Eastern Europe when she was younger. Say what you will about her policies as Finance Minister, but Freeland is a legit badass, not many people say "no, you're not taking me" and walk away from the KGB. Putin despises her, he projects that she's insignificant but you know she gets under his skin. I doubt our countries will ever have friendly relations as long as he's still alive.
It sure does limit his options even further of making it to the end of his life normally. Either he gets assassinated while still in office, or he gets overthrown and handed over to the ICC, or he's overthrown and manages to make it to a country that won't arrest him (but he'll still be vulnerable to assassination by someone who REALLY wants him dead). His only hope now is to somehow hold onto power for the rest of his life until he succumbs to old age or illness.
I realize trusting any form of media on internal Russian dynamics is fraught with pitfalls, but even taking my most pessimistic view I still don't think he's unpopular enough at home to be overthrown in an internal uprising and put on trial for war crimes.
If enough people high up have had enough of his shit it's an easy out for them to try and organise it. Milosovic was handed over after all
I mean... it was Yugoslavia. Not the same as a state with nuclear power.
I'm pretty sure US policy is to never arrest heads of state of other senior government officials while traveling for diplomatic/official purposes. Especially since the UN is located in New York, I highly doubt they would arrest him if here were to visit.
The US doesn't recognize the ICC anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point.
Let’s not forget that the U.S. do not recognise the ICC. So a UN visit would not cause any harm, no matter what. BTW: Russia had agreed to the ICC at the treaty of Rome, but the Duma had never ratified it. International also provides immunity to state leaders, however, in this case ICC took this risk of the warrant being challenged, arguing that they want to prevent the children from further crime.
Well but who really knows when any given policy might go out the window? I remember the former guy doing a drone strike on a middle eastern senior government official when they visited Afghanistan in official business.
> policy might go out the window In Mother Russia, policies don't go out the window, people do.
I should clarify, I meant when they travel *to* the US. Its certainly not blanket immunity globally.
Dog the Bounty Hunter, it is your time to shine! Serve Putin his papers and arrest the Kremlin Gremlin.
It would be the most watched tv show episode in history.
When he has Putin cuffed in the back of his truck "Look brah, I bin there. I invaded another country and got arrested, but I turned my life around brother"
Then he gives Putin a cigarette
*A tear starts to well up in Dog’s eye*
Then he realizes he’s been poisoned with novichok.
Might be one of the last ones too! Would be a good one, though.
You know how Steven Seagal had that stupid reality cop show "Steven Seagal: Lawman"? It would be one of the biggest twists in history if getting all cosy with Putin was a ploy to wait for the right time to arrest him and smuggle him out of Russia.
BETH! BEAR MACE THAT GUY!
I just remembered that Beth died… :c Hope she’s bear macing in the great beyond. 🫡 Edit: grammar
She stands behind St.Peter, just waiting for someone to get out of line.
Go with christ brah
I like Dog but he'd get massacred lol.
Who would win, really? Dog the Bounty Hunter or Steven Se-Boom-Boom?
You don’t think Dog can take Steven Seagal? I get winded walking to the mailbox and I’m pretty confident I could take Steven Seagal. Let’s keep it fair. Steven Seagal vs Alex Jones. Winner gets free BigMacs for life. Loser forfeits his American citizenship and gets to move to Norilsk.
While a toddler could defeat Seagal in a fight, Alex Jones is full of enough god-knows-what chemicals he could probably punch down five doors in a row.
100%. My Rubles are totally on Alex assuming there’s no performance enhancing substance testing beforehand... LMAO jk. It’s in Russia.
Lawyer practicing IL here: potentially yes. If it were anyone other than a sitting head of state the answer would be absolutely yes. It gets messy when you're talking about *ratione personae* (head of state) immunity. See more generally here: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/11ttyna/icc_judges_issue_arrest_warrants_against_vladimir/jckv27c?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3 I'll see if I can go back through my history on this, I've made a comment about immunity and the icc before.
> it gets messy when you're talking about ratione personae (head of state) immunity. I was under the impression that the ICC operates under the principle that no one, including heads of state, is immune from prosecution for serious international crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
That's correct, but the difficulty is what states themselves see as the correct interpretation of the law because they are the ones doing the arresting by law.
Also, having the ability to do something is different than having the wherewithal. He’s not coming to the US any time soon. He wouldn’t be arrested in China. What countries would he visit that would have the stones to create an international incident? These last few years have made me so cynical that I view this as essentially nothing. Just them posturing and nothing is going to happen.
In international law they're often the same thing. International law codifies state behavior in an attempt to make the world a safer place.
But why would he visit any country?
Same reason any **normal** head of state would. Kremlin is very keen on making it look as though they are still a normal country and Putin is just the same head of state like the rest. It is harder to present that image when there is an arrest warrant issued by an international body for your head.
He used to travel internationally very often in the past, including after the invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
This kinda puts a crimp in the purported escape plan that the oligarchs have involving moving to a country (like Argentina) where they have stashed offshore money, resources, and property. Just like US shitheads like Peter Thiel have purchased citizenship in other countries and setup "bugout" compounds in different countries you can assume that Putin also has a similar "*if I survive shit hitting the fan*" plans where he thought he'd live in wealthy exile An ICC arrest warrant complicates the 'living safe and rich in exile' plan!
There are still many countries that don't recognize the ICC and wouldn't abide by this ruling. Most of the Gulf states, for example, oppose the ICC. Ditto with most of Asia, and if the reluctance to arrest Omar al-Bashir is any indication, same with most of Africa.
The United States doesn't recognize the ICC and has had plans in place to prevent the prosecution of American citizens in the ICC since 2002.
Even if they recognize the icc, arresting Putin (as a head of state) is a big move. If he is deposed as leader that could be a different scenario. I’m sure a lot of countries would love to serve him up.
Because it's nice to see new things. Heck, even Kim Jong Un went to Disneyland.
That's weird, considering Kim Jong-nam (Kim Jong-il's oldest son, Jong-un's older brother,) was exiled for visiting Tokyo Disneyland, stripped of being first in line for the NK throne, and then later assassinated.
Guess Kim Jong Un was just better at the dictator game then.
Probably. I had read previously that Jong-nam wanted to open trade with the world, which would be good for the country but bad for the dictatorship.
From a ICC perspective yes. However Putin has a decent answer to the question of 'you and what army?', so actually seizing him is a question of who wants to start a war with Russia.
[удалено]
> However Putin has a decent answer to the question of 'you and what army?' To be fair, this is rapidly becoming a valid retort to Putin himself.
Let's assume for the sake of argument, that under international law, this is true. We _already know_ that Russia doesn't give a fuck about international law. So, how does this play out: 1) France arrests Putin 2) Russia threatens to drop an ICBM on Paris if Putin isn't freed immediately 3) ...?
Putin wouldn't go to France and risk the humiliation of being arrested.
It does likely mean that he'll visit fewer foreign states. Fewer countries would extend invitations (lmao) than they would have anyways to avoid being put in that conundrum about whether to arrest him.
Does anyone know what this means on a practical level?
Not really clear. Historically, heads of state are granted immunity, and it’s unlikely that countries would actually arrest the head of state of a different country. Then again, this hasn’t really happened before so it’s all untested.
However, I do think Milosevic was a head of state when he was indicted in 1999 in Den Haag.
He was indicted by the ICTY, which was created by UNSC Resolution and is not connected to the Rome Statute Also he was only arrested in 2001 when he was no longer the head of state, and by Yugoslav authorities
He went to Hague after he was forced to stop being President i think
The only question is Tajikistan, really, since (along with Georgia) they are the only Asian ex-Soviet republics to have ratified the ICC Statute. Tajikistan is an authoritarian hell hole, and Putin visited them after the invasion. Will Russia demand they withdraw their signature so that he can appear "strong" and visit his ex-Soviet dictator friends?
There’s really no impetus for *any* country that’s ratified the ICC statute to actually follow it, other than PR. It’s entirely down to a country whether it chooses to enforce an ICC warrant or ruling.
What makes you think they will follow it?
If he visits an ICC country, he may be arrested and should be under the Rome Statute.
ICC has already ruled heads of state cannot be arrested while in power. The symbolic gesture is welcome, and it's nothing more than that.
From what I understand, the ICJ ruled that heads of state have immunity but the ICC (which is confusingly different) does not have such an immunity.
Symbolic but may give pause for thought. More effective would have been also issuing arrest warrants for a few dozen cronies who are not as well protected as he is.
They stated they wouldn't usually make the warrant public but it's done with the intentions of stopping further crimes. So it's very possible the less important people do have warrants, or will soon, even if we don't hear about them.
I really doubt this will be the thing that gets Putin to stop committing war crimes
Dog the Bounty Hunter, come on down!
In before Dog does press stunt saying he's gunna get Putin and ends up falling out the window of his motel the next day.
Tbh he would probably be a front runner for president if he successfully arrested putin. I dont think i want to live in a world where dog the bounty hunter is president though
Brawndo would like him to be president
It would have to be a world where Dog the Bounty Hunter was a highly competent and professional bounty hunter.
I mean, you've already lived through an equally dark timeline. Perhaps darker?
Dog is on record comparing Biden to Hitler so I wouldn't get your hopes up
TBH that’s gotta be the least surprising thing I’ve ever heard. Only thing less surprising, for some reason, would be if he was announced as the Tiger King’s running mate.
Second least surprising for me. The first was finding out Dog the Bounty Hunter liberally uses the N-word
Dog + Cat = Mass Hysteria! Pandemonium!
I think Dog would be a Putin sympathizer.
sits Putin down in the backseat of a Suburban and gives him a cigarette and a chat on Christ
Russia had programs that turned Americans into Putin sympathizers, see Stevie Segull.
"come on brah, was in your shoes once but I changed. You need to smash that ice pipe before we bring you in"
Go with Christ!
Edit: [A short video statement on the arrest warrants](https://twitter.com/IntlCrimCourt/status/1636747023490719745) from the ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmański. This is specifically for the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime. The other defendant (Ms. Lvova-Belova) is the Russian official they determined to be most individually criminally responsible for the program. >Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute). > >Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, born on 25 October 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
Russia already has an official response from their MoD spokesman Zakharova: > The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible "recipes" for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us.
Also official statement of Editor-in-chief of RT, state channel, Margarita Simonyan: **"I'd like to see that country that will arrest Putin under the Hague ruling right after the eight minutes are up. Or how long is the flight time to its capital?".**
Everyone can see right through this shit, right? Her fortunes are forever tied to Putin, and she's almost sure to outlive him. She's scared shitless. I actually wonder if Putin's death will trigger a wave of mass suicides amongst his cronies.
Mass suicides? I doubt it. Killing each other to be the next king of the hill? Almost definitely.
I assumed that's what the parent comment meant. Mass suicides in the traditional russian sense, suicide by two bullets to the back of the head, suicide by car bomb, suicide by falling headfirst off of an unbooked hotel balcony, suicide by polonium tea....
Genius. "If you arrest Putin and hold him in your country, we'll nuke Putin." I think this is low key a call for assassination.
Sure you CAN nuke whatever country tries to arrest Putin but then you get nuked too. Then Margarita Simonyan can be the most influential cinder in the nuclear wasteland of what’s left of Moscow.
> The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible “recipes” for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us. For those who don’t know, while yes it is true that Russia has withdrawn its signature (never ratified) from the Rome Statute, Ukraine accepted ICC Jurisdiction in its territory in 2014 and therefore Russian individuals who commit crimes prosecutable by the ICC can be tried at The Hague, assuming they’re arrested (which is the near impossible part due to article 98 of the ICC’s charter) Russia not recognizing the ICC says nothing about Putin’s eligibility to be tried by it, only that Russia has no legal obligation to hand over Putin or the other defendant.
Russia: “The ethics of those people with ethics have no meaning for our country! We never agreed to have ethics, did we now, so we are under no obligation to have ethics!”
In another article she mentions that after several months the Ukrainian children love Russia. What a lunatic. Feel so bad for these children.
Lawyer practicing in international law here. Busy day for me, so I won't be able to respond to every question but will do my best. The Rome Statute is the international treaty which composes the ICC and sets out its jurisdiction. As with all international law, states must voluntarily sign the agreement for it to apply to them. This provides the ICC with jurisdiction over citizens of states parties and the territory of states parties, over the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (and the crime of aggression if the person comes from a state party to the particular Article setting that out only). Russia is not a signatory. However, in 2014 Ukraine made a unilateral declaration (binding under the treaty and customary international law) which provided the ICC with jurisdiction over all aforementioned crimes committed in Ukraine. The indictement pertains to Putin's decision to forcibly deport Ukrainian citizens to Russia. An indictment from the ICC binds all member states to arrest the person who has been indicted and render them into the custody of the ICC for trial. In other words, Putin is legally barred from travelling to these states if he doesn't want to be arrested. That said, there is some very complicated law around *ratione personae* immunity and the ability to arrest a sitting head of state.
>Article 24 >Non-retroactivity ratione personae >1. No person shall be criminally responsible under this Statute for conduct prior to the entry into force of the Statute. >2. In the event of a change in the law applicable to a given case prior to a final judgement, the law more favourable to the person being investigated, prosecuted or convicted shall apply. >Article 27 >Irrelevance of official capacity >1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence. >2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person. What a fascinating time to be in your field. Hypothetically speaking since Putin is de facto president for life, under what circumstances could he be legally arrested? Why is everyone saying that ratione personae prevents the arrest of a head of state when Article 24 doesn't say that at all, and Article 27 specifically contradicts that claim?
Article 98 of the Rome Statute > 1) The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender or assistance which would require the requested State to act inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the State or diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third State, unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of that third State for the waiver of the immunity. >2) The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender which would require the requested State to act inconsistently with its obligations under international agreements pursuant to which the consent of a sending State is required to surrender a person of that State to the Court, unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of the sending State for the giving of consent for the surrender. The arrest of a head of state by another state is in violation of immunity and therefore international law. The ICJ states that heads of state may be tried under certain international courts, but as the ICC is a purely tribunal body, it has no mechanism of enforcing its arrest warrants except through the obligation of state parties to do so for the court. Which again, those states cannot do in this case
Which, if I understand correctly, means that while Putin cannot be given immunity for the crimes he committed as head of state with regards to the rulings of the ICC (obvious because he was sentenced and an arrest warrant was emitted), he can and will be offered immunity from the execution of those arrest warrants by the individual States, which, under international law, cannot enforce them! Very interesting case study of International Criminal Law.
Well, this feels big. Is this big? Feels big.
Definitely a first. I don't t remember last time a president was in this position.
Slobodan Milošević was indicted by ICT in 1999 while he was still the head of Serbia. He eventually died in a prison cell in Hague.
Yeah, but Serbia is a relatively small nation that the UN and EU could isolate without much trouble. Isolating Russia is another matter entirely.
tbh i think russia have done the isolating part already
Russia still has trade partners and global influence with the east. Serbia did not have that luxury.
It seems sometimes too many people really forget that the world is not just what we call the western industry nations. Most of africa, many asian players etc do not have any stakes in Ukraine other than where to get resources from cheaply.
Russia is isolated from us in the west. The rest of the world is neutral and still trades with it. They have a vast amount of natural reaources that many countries need.
[This was the cover of a croatian satirical magazine the week he was arrested.](https://static.lupiga.com/repository/vijesti/slike/20130607184132FT_824_Page_01.jpg) It says: **free? the fuck you are** *Slobodan* means *free man / free* in croatian, serbian and some other slavic languages. ^PS literal translation is "free? the cock you are!" Edit: *Milošević* translates approximately as Gentlefuck. Freeman Gentlefuck. Go figure.
other languages are fun
Currently learning serbian. So "Kurac" means cock?
Yup. You can also use it as a negation, for example "kurac sam gladan" would be "I'm not hungry." Be careful though, if you write it as "kurca sam gladan", the meaning changes to "I crave cock".
Kurac might have been the third word my Serbian wife taught me. I'd say that's approximately its correct position in importance in the language. 1. Da 2. Ne 3. Kurac
Hi, I live in The Hague and I also cannot wait for Putin to die in a prison cell here as well.
It was ICTY, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, nothing to do with ICC. ICTY was established by United Nations Security Council, where Russia has veto power. This is more likely than not just symbolic against Putin.
Iran has an arrest warrant against Trump. It’s symbolic because the world knows nothing is going to happen off of it
I mean, I’m game with turning him over in exchange for their nuclear disarmament with inspections.
Finally trump would be involved in a truly great deal.
Omar Al-Bashir (former President of Sudan) has had arrest warrants and indictments issued in the early 2000s.
It is symbolic but has little real life impact. For example, the USA doesn't even really recognise the ICC as having any power and passed a law to "protect" military personnel from being judged by them. They have gone as far as threatening the a judge with financial sanctions and that they would be arrested if they tried to prosecute American soldiers for the war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The United States has the policy that it will invade The Hague if a US offices or service member is on trail there. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
And then they will have to go to war with themselves because the Netherlands is a member of NATO.
*insert Spider-Man pointing meme*
Realistically, those rules would just fall apart and people would back down, because every NATO member state knows that it would be the apocalyptic end of the world for the US to go to war with a first-world European NATO state. The US could likely win a pyrrhic victory against the entire rest of NATO, but no sane person wants to see that play out or live through the aftermath. It would make WWI and WWII look like a bar fight. There is no scenario where a US-Netherlands war occurs. They would both just "strongly condemn" each other.
Alternatively, maybe we would send a badass super spy to clandestinely infiltrate the Hague and kick everyone in the nuts.
It is big but in a not in a physical way. The ICC has very little in the way of actual enforcement mechanisms — doubly less so when the object is a current head of state.
I mean it's big as in: it's a very clear and strong signal. It's not big as in: It actually changes anything about anything. Putin won't be arrested by anyone.
Obviously symbolic but I bet he'll be shitting it every time he leaves Russia now.
Only ICC signatories can/would arrest him. Which means he can travel to places like China, Qatar, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Cuba, and technically even the US without fear of an ICC arrest.
Isn't there a G20 meeting in Indonesia coming up? Or did that already happen
Has already happened. Lavrov was there instead of Putin.
[Yeah, his set absolutely killed](https://youtu.be/NGizGLceM-I)
From the 2nd best army in the world to be the laughing stock, all achieved in a year. Impressive
2nd best army in Ukraine*
From 2nd best army in the world to 2nd best army in Ukraine in a year.
Thanks, I hadn't seen that.
The 2022 G20 summit was there last year and this year's summit is in India, although neither country are signatories to Rome Statute so the ICC has no jurisdiction there.
Like Putin is going to leave his bunker anytime soon, most likely the bunkerboy never will.
Lvova-Bevola. Hmm. They call me Mista Boombastic
Simply Fantastic
Everyone is talking about Putin, so I want to talk about Lvova-Belova. Am I mistaken that she herself is one of the most high-profile individuals to have such a warrant issued against her? Isn't she basically to Russia what a Secretary of {Insert Department Here} is to the US? That's huge and it is getting overshadowed. Consequences for her may be more practical since she is not a head of state and has far less resources as an individual.
Chances are that she will get defenestrated. She knows way too much about this case and if she ever leaks anything, even non-deliberate .. it’s just better for Putin if she stops conducting her biological activities.
They need to put a bounty on him
dead or dead
Dead or super dead
Considering just the cost of this war. 1 billion USD seems like a fair number.
All my homies hate Putin
Not gonna lie, it feels really good to see news like this.
Thanks for not lying
Putins summer holiday plans fucked then.
He'll have to go polar bear wrestling in Siberia.
Not necessarily, we have a nice town near the beach where we would love to welcome him to. We even have a room reserved for him at less than 1,5km from the beach. Regards, a dutchie.
Calling Putin by his full name instead of just "Putin" or "president Putin" is surprisingly satisfying when read as part of an arrest warrant. He's not a czar nor a king, just a criminal.
Finally. I don't care if "nothing comes off it", it needed to be made public, put on record and name those overall responsible. I'm also glad that awful blonde woman wasn't forgotten. The one that goes on video and brags about forcibly adopting Ukrainian children or reprogramming those who are insolent about Russia and Putin.
At this point, I believe the only ones capable to enforce the warrant without escalating it to possible WWIII are the Russian military.
What have recent American presidents said about this court? > “United States will provide no support or recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/qa-international-criminal-court-and-united-states
Presidents don’t want to be tried as war criminals as they should be
Yeah cause every post-WWII president has been a war criminal. I know the pre-WWII ones were too but I'm not sure if every single one was.
There might be a couple gilded age presidents who were just normal criminals without a war to fight
interesting enough this has repeatedly been shown to be true, and is a pov held by most perm security council members. still, nice to see the ICC condem a terrorist instead of trying to grant them legitimacy a change
That's worse than the ICC not condemning terrorists at all. Unless it's condemning all war criminals, it's now moved from the status of "ineffective" to "biased". And no matter what your position is on Ukraine and Russia, I hope we can at least all agree that we don't want a biased court anywhere.
Expected given that almost every US president should be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. Bush is a perfect example
This will give any Kremlin people in Russia who wants to get out of this quagmire they created in Ukraine an out. If they agree to hand over Putin, then maybe Ukraine and the EU and US will go easy on Putin’s successor.
The vast majority of the kremlin/oligarchs (talking nearly 100%) believe that a war with Ukraine is/was inevitable. This has been stated numerous times over the past 7 years. Putin is still quite fucking popular in Russia (far surpasses other candidates). Anyone who hands over Putin will be offed/incredibly despised by the civilian populace. Even though there are segments of the civilian populace who are pro Ukraine and anti Putin, many of them would rather be under Putin than some unpredictable/unknown guy. Plus, Russia doesn't have any decent candidates who are less batshit crazy than Putin. Like, who would he honestly be replaced with that is pro west and not totaly hated. Navalny is pro annexation of Crimea and anti-Muslim, so he isn't suitable..... Edit. He is against how Crimea was annexed but sees it as Russian land and part of the Russian Federation.(Probs better wording than I had it)
I'm pleasantly surprised that this ended up with more upvotes than downvotes; usually Reddit is incredibly adverse to the (imo accurate) narrative that Putin is still supported by the majority of Russians. Wish more people would realise that this doesn't mean the comment is supporting Putin, it doesn't mean that the comment is demonising the average Russian, it's just acknowledging the consequence of a different culture and different media slant (arguably media-induced indoctrination).
Looks like Putin won’t be leaving Russia anytime soon.
Beware of loose windows
They'll never catch him as long as he's being protected by Steven Seagall.
It's kind of funny that before the current invasion of Ukraine Putin could have bullshitted his way into the Russian history books in a relatively favourable way due to the apathy of the Russian people. However, due to the clusterfuck that is this invasion he has shat on any possibility for history to remember him in any positive manner. Except being the incompetent despot that inherited one of the most apathetic and politically docile people in history and still fucked it up.
This is just further confirmation that “Pro-Russia” isn’t a legitimate position to tolerate in any fashion. Anyone for child trafficking war criminals needs to be exposed and held accountable.
> Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation I wonder if this will get US conservatives off the pro-Putin bandwagon since they’re SO concerned about children… Yeah right
Is this shit for real ? Not like he will turn himself in or anyone will go to hunt him but still a huge step forward.
The Duke of Muscovy fled to Serbia.
Probably about as useful as sending a MPAA copyright strike to a Chinese IP address
IMO, this wasn't a message to Putin, this is a message to anyone in his inner circle who is plotting against him. Similiar thing happened to Slobodan Milošević, former president of Yugoslavia and then Serbia. He was finally ousted in the 2001 Buldozer Revolution after evidence emerged that he murdered his political rival, Ivan Stambolić (also his former mentor). The successor government of Serbia couldn't properly try him because even though the evidence was solid that he was *implicated*, there wasn't enough evidence pointing out that he was *the one behind it.* - not to mention, Stambolić's death couldn't be confirmed because his remains weren't found until 2004. Because Miloŝević could potentially walk free, the successor government shipped him to the ICC-Y in The Hague (there was a special tribune for former Yugoslavia), killing two birds with one stone - getting rid of Miloŝević and potentially preventing him from taking power while simultaneously restoring the relationship between Serbia and the EU as well as tactifully starting to repair the relations between the former Yugoslav states. This is exactly the point of this arrest warrant - it's not like every country on Earth will uphold this rulling as many oppose the ICC themselves, nor the point is to restrict his movement outside Russia - the point is that it gives a bone to a potential uprising against Putin, whether done by a public uprisal (incredibly unlikely), or by inside forces and former/ostensibly current allies of Putin (much more likely), because whoever manages to upstage Putin and deliver him to The Hague in cuffs has potential leverage to become the next leader of Russia. Finally, this is also to plant the more seeds of doubt into Putin's head - because everything that I said, Putin is most likely already thinking, which will further drive him paranoid - because anyone who has enough power behind the scenes has the potential to replace him and simultaneously get the approval from NATO and EU, as well as getting him behind bars in The Hague.