Associated Press:
THE HAGUE (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Friday that it
has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for
war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions
of children from Ukraine.
Although world leaders have been indicted before, it was the first time
the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the
five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for
the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful
transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian
Federation.”
It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna
Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of
the President of the Russian Federation.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow — and welcomed by Ukraine
as a major breakthrough. Its practical implications, however, could well
be limited as the chances of either facing trial at the ICC are
extremely unlikely.
But the moral condemnation will likely stain Putin for the rest of his
life — and in the more immediate future whenever he seeks to attend an
international summit in a nation that could be bound to arrest him.
“So Putin might go to China, Syria, Iran, his ... few allies, but he
just won’t travel to the rest of the world and won’t travel to ICC
member states who he believes would actually ... arrest him,” said Adil
Ahmad Haque, an expert in international law and armed conflict at
Rutgers University.
Others agreed. “Vladimir Putin will forever be marked as a pariah
globally. He has lost all his political credibility around the world.
Any world leader who stands by him will be shamed as well,” David Crane,
a former international prosecutor, told The Associated Press....
