Mongolia ignores Putin’s arrest warrant, welcomes him on the red carpet

The ICC has accused Putin of being responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Member states are required to detain suspects if an arrest warrant is issued, but Mongolia must maintain its ties with Russia and the court has no mechanism to enforce its arrest warrants.

The Russian leader was welcomed to the central square of the capital Ulaanbaatar by an honor guard dressed in bright red and blue uniforms based on those of the personal guard of the 13th century ruler Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.

A large crowd watched from behind temporary barriers as Putin and Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa walked up the red-carpeted steps of the government palace and bowed before a statue of Genghis Khan before entering the building for their meeting.

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

As Putin was welcomed in Mongolia, his forces attacked a military training facility and a nearby hospital in Poltava, Ukraine, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 200 others, the country’s president said. The attack appeared to be one of the deadliest by Russian forces since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022.

Mongolia and Russia signed agreements to design and study the feasibility of upgrading a power plant in Ulaanbaatar and to secure supplies of Russian jet fuel to Mongolia. Another agreement included an environmental study of a river where Mongolia wants to build a hydroelectric plant that Russia fears would pollute Lake Baikal on the Russian side. Putin also outlined plans to develop the rail system between the 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 in late October. Khurelsukh accepted, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The visit ended Tuesday evening with an honor guard escorting Putin to his plane.

On Monday, the EU said it expressed concerns that the ICC arrest warrant might not be implemented, together with the Mongolian authorities.

Mongolia, like all other countries, has the right to develop its international ties according to its own interests, said European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali. But she added that Mongolia has been a party to the ICC since 2002, “with the legal obligations that entails.”

Given Mongolia’s dependence on Russia and China for trade, energy and security, it was hardly expected that Mongolia would arrest Putin, said Sam Greene, director of democratic resilience at the Centre for European Policy Analysis.

The main reason for this trip was to show that Putin can now travel, he said.

But, Greene added, the executive order still limits Putin’s options, requiring governments considering hosting him to weigh both the domestic and international political implications in a way they didn’t have to before.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, called Putin’s trip to Mongolia a sign of weakness. On X, he posted a message that the Russian leader could only arrange a trip to a country with a small population of 3.4 million people, which is in Russia’s shadow.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the trip was not intended to show something to Western countries, but to develop bilateral relations between two countries rooted in history and beautiful glorious traditions. He made his statements to state television reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel.

More than 50 Russians outside the country signed an open letter calling on Mongolia’s government to immediately arrest Vladimir Putin upon his arrival. Among them was Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was released from a Russian prison in August in the largest prisoner swap between East and West since the Cold War.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, condemned the arrest warrant as illegal in an online statement Tuesday, calling those who would carry it out insane.

Putin, visiting Mongolia for the first time in five years, attended a ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of a joint Soviet-Mongolian victory over Japanese forces in control of Manchuria in northeastern China. Thousands of soldiers on both sides died in months of fighting in 1939 over the location of the border between Manchuria and Mongolia.

“I am very happy about Putin’s visit to Mongolia,” said Yansanjav Demdendorj, a retired economist, referring to Russia’s role against Japan. When we think about the … struggle, it was the Russians who helped liberate Mongolia.

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

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

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

Enkhgerel Seded, who studies at the university in Moscow, said that countries that maintain friendly relations with each other historically do not arrest heads of state on official visits.

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