Putin visits Mongolia to challenge international arrest warrant

9News

3 months ago

Putin visits Mongolia to challenge international arrest warrant

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia on Tuesday with no sign that the host country would bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The trip is Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court since it issued the warrant about 18 months ago.

Putin, on his first visit to Mongolia in five years, participated in a ceremony to mark the 85th anniversary of a joint Soviet and Mongolian victory over Japan’s army when it controlled Manchuria in northeast China. Thousands of soldiers on both sides died in months of fighting in 1939 over the location of the border between Manchuria and Mongolia.

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

The warrant puts the Mongolian government in a difficult position. After decades under communism with close ties to the Soviet Union, it transitioned to democracy in the 1990s and has built relations with the United States, Japan and other new partners.

But Member countries are required to detain suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but Mongolia needs to maintain good relations with Russia.

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