Vladimir Putin cannot be arrested in the Kremlin, they can be detained outside of Russia. In addition, the President of the Russian Federation will lose diplomatic immunity.
Interpol will search for Russian President Vladimir Putin after the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The former judge of this court, Vladimir Vasilenko, revealed the details of the procedure in a commentary to the Glavkom publication.
According to him, the warrant obliges Vladimir Putin to appear in the Hague court to testify, but if the president does not do this, Interpol will put him on the international wanted list. After that, the head of state can be detained in any country that is a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC.
“Interpol cannot come to the Kremlin and arrest him. This can happen if he ends up somewhere outside of Russia. And if Interpol receives information about this, the organization’s employees can detain Putin,” Vladimir Vasilenko explained.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is an international treaty approved when the ICC was established in Rome in 1998. It entered into force on July 1, 2002; as of 2016, the document was signed by 139 countries, but ratified by 125, including Russia. The statute obliges the member states of Intepol to assist in the detention of persons accused of committing international crimes.
As Vladimir Vasilenko added, an investigation is underway in The Hague. In the future, the prosecutor’s office should formulate a guilty verdict and summon Vladimir Putin to court to participate in the court session. The ex-judge is sure that the president will never come.
If the Hague court officially recognizes Vladimir Putin as an international criminal, he will lose diplomatic immunity. Vasilenko also pointed out an important nuance – Vladimir Putin can be held accountable only together with all of Russia, as an aggressor country. This is only possible if Ukraine wins the war and the Putin regime collapses.
“Those who are rushing about with the idea of creating some other additional court should be aware of this. You can’t deceive the public, divert their attention from the real methods of punishing Putin and Putin’s Russia,” summed up Vladimir Vasilenko.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin because of the war in Ukraine. They also want to arrest the Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova, who is considered involved in the export of Ukrainian children. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin explained that the head of state should be arrested and put on trial when he is outside of Russia.
Soon, the Russian Investigative Committee began checking the issuance of an ICC warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin, which was called illegal. The agency intends to identify and prosecute the judges who made this decision.
