Putin will not go to the G20 summit in Brazil — there he could be arrested on the warrant of the International Criminal Court

Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit in Brazil. There he could be arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

At a press conference, a CNN reporter asked Putin if he was afraid of being arrested at the G20 summit. He, evading a direct answer, said:

"I have a great friendly relationship with [Brazilian] President Lula. Well, I will come there specifically to disrupt the normal operation of this forum? Even if you exclude ICC, the conversations will be only about this. We will actually disrupt the work of the G20. Why?"

Therefore, another representative of the Russian Federation will go to the summit instead of him. If Putin came to Brazil, it would be obliged to arrest him because of the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

What preceded

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and the Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights in the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of illegally deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, which is a war crime. Putin and Lvova-Belova should be arrested as official suspects in countries that have ratified the Rome Statute. De jure, 123 countries are closed to them, including Mongolia, which ratified it in 2002.

After issuing the warrant, Putin traveled only to Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, China, the DPRK, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Azerbaijan. These countries have not ratified the Rome Statute, so they are not obliged to comply with the ICCʼs order.

However, during Putinʼs visit to Mongolia on September 2-3 (and this is his first visit to an ICC member state after the issuance of a warrant for his arrest), he was not arrested. As later explained in Mongolia, allegedly due to the countryʼs dependence on Russian energy products.

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