Vladimir Putin has not left Russia since the ICC arrest warrant for war crimes was issued in March. The Russian President has just accepted to travel to China to attend the Belt and Road Forum in October.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to travel to China for the Belt and Road Forum in October, as reported by Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources. This marks one of the first times Putin has left Russia since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin is said to have accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to participate in the event, and the Kremlin is currently preparing for his visit. This would be Putin’s furthest trip from Russia since the ICC arrest warrant was issued last March. While Putin has visited regions of Ukraine under Russian control, neighboring countries of the former Soviet Union, and Iran (which supplies drones to the Russian military), this would be his first international visit since the arrest warrant was issued.
In March, the ICC accused Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, a Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, of illegally deporting children from Ukraine to Russia during the war. Many media outlets have reported on a mass campaign by Russia to remove Ukrainian children and place them in Russian families. For these alleged crimes, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Putin and Lvova-Belova.
The ICC, supported by 123 countries worldwide, was established in 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands, with the aim of prosecuting individuals for serious crimes such as genocide and war crimes.
