Russia's Putin arrives in ICC member Mongolia: Could he be arrested?

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00:00So, under then a cloud of war crime accusations, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived

00:05in Mongolia. His first visit to a member of the International Criminal Court

00:09since the court issued an arrest warrant for him last year. The Russian leader,

00:13wanted by the Hague-based court for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children,

00:18Kiev continuing to urge the Mongolian authorities to execute the arrest warrant,

00:23whilst the ICC itself said last week that all members have an obligation to detain

00:28those sought by it. Well, let's hear first of all from a Russian opposition politician.

00:35Just a few days ago, I, along with numerous members of Russia's opposition and civil society,

00:41signed an open appeal to the government of Mongolia to implement their absolutely clear-cut

00:46legal obligation to arrest citizen Putin the moment he enters Mongolian territory

00:52in accordance with the ICC warrant that accuses him of war crimes.

00:59If Mongolia considers itself a country with a rule of law that aspires to be part of the

01:04civilised world, it should respect the Rome Statute that we know it has signed and ratified.

01:11Well, a short while ago, I spoke to our Asia correspondent, Yenna Li, and I asked her if

01:15there are any signs at all that Putin could be arrested and if he's taking any real risk by being

01:20there. No real risk for President Putin. The Mongolians, after all, have invited him to Ulaanbaatar.

01:29There have been no signs that this is some kind of elaborate ruse to arrest him. For Mongolia's

01:35ruling party, the risks are also very low. Well, rights groups in the capital have been protesting

01:40against President Putin's arrival, but space for civil society in the country is getting narrower

01:47and at this stage, there's little chance that this event would have significant political

01:53consequences for the leadership there, especially as there is little to no risk of sanctions against

01:59the country for this. This is because the ICC has no enforcement mechanism and it's not even the

02:05first time something like this happens. Back in 2015, South Africa did not arrest Sudan's then

02:12President Omar al-Bashir, who had travelled to Johannesburg. He was then wanted for alleged

02:18genocide, so Monday's red carpet welcome for President Putin is just another embarrassment

02:25for the International Criminal Court. So why is Putin there then? What do both sides hope to get

02:30out of this visit? Well, Mongolia's ruling party has decades-long historical ties to Moscow, but

02:39the real focus here is on the country's energy needs. The country depends on Russia for 95%

02:46of its fuel and 20% of its electricity and let's not forget they've just lived through one of their

02:52harshest winters in decades. Temperatures there can drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius and without

02:58Russian energy, the landlocked state would struggle to make it through its cold and harsh

03:03months because it has yet to successfully diversify the sourcing of its petroleum products.

03:09For Russia, meanwhile, Mongolia is an economic partner, but a pretty small one at that. The

03:13population is just around 3.4 million. There are talks about a gas pipeline running through the

03:19country, but that project seems to have lost steam. So this visit for Russia is mainly symbolic.

03:26Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Putin has become a pariah on the international

03:31stage, but now this warm welcome from a member state of the ICC, well, it's a message to the

03:37world that he still has some partners, no matter how small, and that he still has

03:43influence in some parts of the world, notably in Central Asia.

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