Putin to visit ICC signatory Mongolia
Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to Mongolia on September 3. This is his first visit to a country that has ratified the Rome Statute.
This is according to the Moscow Times, as reported by Ukrinform.
In 2002, Mongolia ratified the Rome Statute, the main document under which the International Criminal Court (ICC) operates. In 2023, a representative of the country was elected an ICC judge for a two-year period.
Thus, Putin's visit to Mongolia will be the first trip of the Russian president to the country that is legally obliged to arrest him under the ICC warrant issued in 2023 in The Hague.
The Kremlin has not officially commented on the possibility of arresting Putin, who is accused by the ICC of war crimes due to the "unlawful deportation" of children and population from the occupied Ukrainian territories.
The Moscow Times writes that according to the Kremlin press service, Putin will visit Mongolia at the invitation of its president Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh to commemorate the 1939 Soviet-Mongolian victory over Japan in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
Putin plans to discuss prospects for further development of the Russian-Mongolian "comprehensive strategic partnership", as well as to hold meetings with the Speaker of the Mongolian Parliament Dashzegviin Amarbayasgalan and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene.
As reported by Ukrinform earlier, last year Putin skipped the BRICS summit in South Africa which is also a member of the ICC. The authorities of South Africa asked the Russian president privately and then publicly not to attend the event and to limit himself to video communication. Instead of Putin, the Russian delegation to South Africa was headed by Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.