THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Vladimir Putin may be traveling abroad next week — for potentially pivotal talks with U.S. President Donald Trump — despite the Russian leader facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
Putin is wanted by the court on a warrant dating back to March 2023 for alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine during the conflict triggered by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
The court, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, relies on other countries to arrest suspects and has a spotty history of cooperation.
Putin knows that and has traveled overseas since the warrant was issued, including to ICC member state Mongolia. He’s also traveled to China and North Korea, which are not court members.
Choosing the United Arab Emirates as a venue would mean Putin visiting another country that is not a member of the global court.
The International Criminal Court in a nutshell
The court was set up in 2002 and aims to hold leaders and senior officials accountable for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. It has 125 member states, but three major global powers — the United States, Russia and China — are not members. Ukraine officially joined the court in January.
More than 900 staff work for the court that has a budget this year of just over 195 million euros ($228 million).
In an indication of the problems it has getting suspects arrested, judges have issued warrants for 61 people and 30 remain at large.
The ICC is a court of last resort, meaning it only takes on cases when other countries’ legal systems are unable or unwilling to prosecute suspects.
The United States and Russia both oppose the court
Trump’s administration has slapped sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, after Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC. He accuses the court of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting America and Israel. The court has issued an arrest warrant for two top Israeli officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza. They deny the accusations, and Netanyahu has called the warrant “absurd.”
Trump previously sanctioned Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, in his first term in the White House and the Biden administration subsequently lifted those sanctions.
Russia also rejects the court’s authority and has issued a warrant for Khan and the ICC judge who signed Putin’s warrant.
Countries that have not arrested suspects and a notable one that has
It is not just Mongolia that has failed to arrest a suspect wanted by the court. In April, Netanyahu visited Hungary, an ICC member state, and was not arrested. Instead, the Israeli leader received a red-carpet welcome from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who later said his country does not arrest its visiting friends. Hungary is now in the process of leaving the court.
The only other countries to have left are Burundi and the Philippines, whose former president, Rodrigo Duterte, is in custody at the court’s cell block in The Hague after he was arrested on charges of crimes against humanity linked to his government’s deadly crackdown on drugs.
Duterte was arrested in his home country in March by Philippine police as he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong. President Ferdinand Marcos said the arrest was “proper and correct” and not an act of political persecution.
South Africa allowed Sudan’s then-leader Omar al-Bashir to visit in 2015 without arresting him. Al-Bashir is wanted on charges including genocide for his role in the bloody conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region in the 2000s. He is in prison in his own country but still has not been sent to The Hague, even after being ousted from office in 2019 in a popular uprising.
ICC prosecutor is on leave amid ethics probe
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, has stepped down pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. He has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.
No date has been set for the investigation to be completed.
