Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting with government officials via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 22, 2021. Putin said he will get vaccinated against the coronavirus on Tuesday, months after widespread vaccination has started in Russia. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The International Criminal Court on Friday, March 17 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes over his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.
In an unprecedented move, 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 Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.
Even if the court has court has indicted world leaders before, it was the first time it issued a warrant against one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow but welcomed by Ukraine.
The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.
Source: International Wires
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