As part of an alleged plan to transfer Ukrainian children to Russia, the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest order for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova.
The court said there “are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged crimes, for having committed them directly alongside others, and for “his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.”
The ICC allegations against Russian officials are the first to be publicly brought against them since Moscow started its unprovoked attack on Ukraine last year. They relate to an alleged practice that CNN and other media outlets have reported on.
The ICC’s ruling was deemed “outrageous and unacceptable” by the Kremlin.
“We consider the very posing of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like several states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tweeted on Friday.
After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, hundreds of Ukrainian children vanished, according to official Ukrainian data.
It is unlikely that an ICC trial would proceed. Like the US, Ukraine, and China, Russia is not a party to the ICC. Any Russian officials indicted would have to be either handed over by Moscow or captured outside of Russia because the court does not hold trials in absentia.
