The ICC Has Issued a Warrant for Vladimir Putin. Will He Actually Be Arrested?

In a major step forward in the effort to recognize Russian crimes in Ukraine , the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The charges focused on some of the most disturbing crimes of the Russian invasion: thousands of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and transported into Russia. According to analyses by global analysts, these crimes not only threaten the most vulnerable Ukrainians and rip apart families, but also represent a systematic effort to erase Ukrainian identity by re-educating children to be Russian.
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In a statement to reporters, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, noted that Russia does not recognize the ICC. “We view even posing this question to be itself outrageous and unacceptable,” he said.

Here’s what you need to know about the charges against Putin, and why they are significant.

What are the charges against Putin?

The ICC has charged Putin over Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children under two articles of the Rome Statute, which established the court: unlawful deportations of civilians, and unlawfully moving them from occupied Ukraine into Russia.

Additionally, the ICC issued an arrest warrant under the same charges for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, who is believed to be in charge of programs involving children. The announcement follows a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday, which found that Russia has committed war crimes, including forcibly moving children.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,” the ICC said in a statement.

Although the exact number of children who have been moved to Russia is unknown, both Russian and …read more

Source:: Time – World