Russian President Putin's visit to Mongolia calls into question an international arrest warrant against him

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia on Tuesday with no sign the host country would give in to demands to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It is Putin's first visit to an International Criminal Court member state since it issued the arrest warrant about 18 months ago. Ahead of his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to extradite Putin to the court in The Hague and the European Union expressed concern that Mongolia might not be able to execute the arrest warrant. A spokesman for Putin said last week that the Kremlin was not concerned.

The arrest warrant puts the Mongolian government in a difficult position. After decades of communism and close ties with the Soviet Union, the country transitioned to democracy in the 1990s and built relations with the United States, Japan and other new partners. But economically it remains dependent on its two much larger and more powerful neighbors, Russia and China. Russia supplies the landlocked country with most of its fuel and a significant portion of its electricity.

The ICC accuses Putin of being responsible for the abduction of children from Ukraine, where fighting has been raging for two and a half years. Member countries are required to arrest suspects if there is an arrest warrant. But Mongolia must maintain good relations with Russia and the court lacks a mechanism to enforce its arrest warrants.

The Russian president was greeted in the main square of the capital Ulan Bator by an honour guard in bright red and blue uniforms in the style of the 13th-century personal guard of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) walks with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh (left) during the welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Kristina Kormilitsyna

A crowd of onlookers watched from behind makeshift barriers as Putin and Mongolian President Churelsuch Uchnaa walked up the red-carpeted steps of the government palace and bowed to a statue of Genghis Khan before entering the building for their meeting.

A small group of protesters who tried to unfurl a Ukrainian flag before the welcoming ceremony were escorted away by police. Five others who had gathered a few blocks west of the square held an anti-Putin banner and a Ukrainian flag, but dispersed after hearing of the arrests.

The two governments signed agreements for a feasibility study and planning to modernize a power plant in Ulaanbaatar and to ensure the continuous supply of aviation fuel to Mongolia. Putin also outlined plans to expand the rail network between the two countries.

The two governments signed agreements for a feasibility study and planning to upgrade the power plant in Ulaanbaatar to ensure supplies of aviation fuel to Mongolia. Another agreement was for an environmental study of a river on which Mongolia plans to build a hydroelectric power plant, which Russia believes would pollute Lake Baikal on the Russian side. Putin also outlined plans to expand the rail network between the two countries.

He invited the Mongolian president to attend a summit of the BRICS countries – a group that includes Russia and China – in the Russian city of Kazan at the end of October. According to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Khurelsukh accepted the invitation.

On Monday, the EU informed the Mongolian authorities that it had communicated its concerns that the ICC arrest warrant might not be executed.

“Mongolia, like all other countries, has the right to develop its international relations in accordance with its own interests,” said European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali. She added, however, that Mongolia has been a party to the ICC since 2002, “with the legal obligations that this entails.”

More than 50 Russians abroad have signed an open letter calling on the Mongolian government to “arrest Vladimir Putin immediately upon his arrival.” Among them is Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was released from a Russian prison in August in the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, called the arrest warrant “illegal” in an online statement on Tuesday and labeled those who would try to execute it “madmen.”

Putin, on his first visit to Mongolia in five years, attended a ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of the Soviet Union and Mongolia's joint victory over the Japanese army when it controlled Manchuria in northeast China. Thousands of soldiers from both sides died in months of fighting over the border between Manchuria and Mongolia in 1939.

“I am very happy about Putin's visit to Mongolia,” said Yansanjav Demdendorj, a retired economist, referring to Russia's role in the fight against Japan. “When we think of the … battle, it was the Russians who contributed to the liberation of Mongolia.”

Uyanga Tsoggerel, who supports the protests, said her country is a democracy that does not tolerate dictatorship and accused Putin of “ruthlessly humiliating and shaming Mongolia in front of the whole world.”

Putin has made a series of foreign trips in recent months to counter the international isolation he faces over the invasion of Ukraine. In May he visited China, in June he traveled to North Korea and Vietnam, and in July he visited Kazakhstan for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

But Kenneth Roth, the longtime former director of Human Rights Watch, called Putin's trip to Mongolia “a sign of weakness” and posted on X that the Russian president “could only manage a trip to a country with a tiny population of 3.4 million people that lives in Russia's shadow.”

Last year, the South African government lobbied Putin to attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, which he eventually attended via video link. South Africa, an ICC member, was condemned by activists and its main opposition party in 2015 when it failed to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during a visit to an African Union summit.

Enkhgerel Seded, who studies at a university in Moscow, said that countries with friendly relations historically do not arrest heads of state during official visits.

“Our country has obligations to the international community,” she said. “But … I think that in this case too, it would not be appropriate to make an arrest.”

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