Despite ICC warrant, Russian President Putin can travel to India for SCO, G20 summits

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 18

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be able to travel to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in May and for the G20 Summit in September despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant against him for war crimes relating to the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children.

The US, which could have applied heavy pressure on India to exclude Putin, will not be able to do so as it has withdrawn from the ICC. India, the host chair for both the SCO and G20, is not a member of ICC nor is Russia. In fact, Ukraine too is not an ICC member but has conveniently opted to accept its jurisdiction when it has suited it. Sources here expect pressure at the G20 to exclude Putin from Britain, Japan and Germany which are all ICC members.

Another issue is the grey area of ICC’s jurisdiction. The offences should be committed either in a country that ratified the agreement or by a national of a ratifying country. Neither Ukraine nor Russia falls in this category, though the latter might take advantage of a loophole in the ICC’s convention as Article 12(3) allows a nation that has not signed the convention to temporarily accept the Geneva-based body’s recommendation.

The ICC’s last attempt to prosecute an individual for war crimes has remained open ended after five months. In November last year, it had moved against Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army chief Joseph Kony for kidnapping children to use them as soldiers, slavery, rape and murder. But he still remains free.

According to the ICC, Putin faces a warrant of arrest on charges of unlawful deportation of children from occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. It also issues a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.  

The Kremlin has dismissed the warrant as “outrageous and unacceptable”. It also said the ICC’s ruling was “null and void” because Russia not a member of the body.