ICC issues warrant against Putin; Here's everything you need to know about arrest notice

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for committing war crimes in Ukraine, including his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from the neighboring war-ravaged country. However, Moscow has dismissed the move as absurd and not legally binding.

The court said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crimes of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation." Also, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, was charged with similar allegations.

Here's all you need to know about the ICC's warrant against Putin

The International Criminal Court's pre-trial Chamber issued an "arrest warrant" against Putin and Lvova-Belova. The court accused them of being responsible for the "unlawful deportation of the population (children) and unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine." The accusations against Putin and his ministers are based on the Ukrainian government’s interpretation of Russian efforts to evacuate civilians from frontline areas that the Ukrainian troops have targeted. It is pertinent to mention here that although Russia was one of the signatories to the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding document, Moscow never agreed to the treaty, and in 2016, it officially withdrew from it. Whatever the court claims or does is null and void in Russia. Notably, at least 123 states have signed the Rome Statute and as many as 41 countries have not ratified the agreement, including China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Besides Russia, Israel, Sudan, and the US are also not parties to this agreement.

What is Russia's take on the ICC's warrant?

After the ICC issued an arrest warrant against the Kremlin leader, Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called the court's announcement "outrageous and unacceptable." Senator Andrey Klishas, from the ruling party in Russia, said the International Court had put itself on the road to self-destruction. Whereas, former president and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev compared the ICC's arrest warrant against Putin to "toilet paper."

Image: AP