Some guests are particularly embarrassing for their hosts. Mongolia is set to become, on Tuesday, September 3, the first member country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to receive Vladimir Putin since the court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president in March 2023. The risk of arrest is more than low, as the visit was officially announced by the Mongolian government, which is thus placing itself in contradiction with its obligations as a signatory to the Treaty of Rome and tarnishing its image as a democracy committed to international standards. The Kremlin spokesman said he had not “of worry” for the visit. “We have excellent relations with our partners in Mongoliasaid Dmitry Peskov. Of course, all aspects of the President’s visit were carefully prepared.”
Officially, the head of the Russian Federation is coming to participate in the celebrations of the 85the anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Khalkhin-Gol, from May to September 1939, in which Russians and Mongols repelled a Japanese offensive in the far east of Mongolia. In fact, with this trip to Ulan Bator, Mr. Putin seems as much to want to demonstrate the weaknesses of international law in the face of Russian power as to hinder the efforts of the “country of the steppes” to bring the West closer.
The ICC issued a warrant in March 2023 for the Russian president for the deportation of children from occupied Ukraine to the Russian Federation. South Africa, also a party to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC, had dodged Mr Putin’s request in August 2023 to attend a BRICS summit in Johannesburg by convincing him to participate by videoconference.
Between two giants
Mongolia has “the obligation to cooperate”recalled an ICC spokesman, Fadi El-Abdallah, while the Ukrainian foreign ministry urged Mongolia to “transfer Putin” in The Hague. The unease is all the more acute since Mongolia ratified the statutes of the ICC in 2002, keeping in mind the Stalinist purges which, between 1937 and 1939, caused tens of thousands of deaths on its territory. “Putin, who could not hate our diplomacy more, is making this visit to get Mongolia expelled from the ICC. Our foreign minister should be fired. Such political renunciation is unacceptable!”denounced a former mayor of Ulaanbaatar, Erdeniin Bat-Üül.
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