The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Putin
The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to a regional governor via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 21, 2022. The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner for possible war crimes.
Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
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Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to a regional governor via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 21, 2022. The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner for possible war crimes.
Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes involving accusations that Russia has forcibly taken Ukrainian children.
The ICC also issued a warrant for Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
The court said in a news release Friday the two are “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.”
The move by the criminal court at the Hague marked a significant, rare step, requesting the arrest of a sitting world leader, analysts said.
Russia is not a party to the court and a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there’s no significance to this arrest warrant. Ukraine called it “historic.”
The ICC’s President Piotr Hofmanski said the judges decided to make these warrants public to try to deter further crimes.
A report released last month by Yale University researchers and the State Department accused the Russian government of operating a systematic network of custody centers for thousands of Ukrainian children.
Russian officials have not denied the arrival of Ukrainian children in Russia but have previously characterized the children centers as part of a large humanitarian project for abandoned, war-traumatized orphans.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.