Mongolia Ignores Arrest Warrant, Welcomes Putin
On September 3, Vladimir Putin received a red-carpet welcome in Mongolia, as the country ignored calls to arrest the Russian president on an international warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
The trip was Putin's first to a member nation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it issued a warrant for his arrest in March 2023.
The court has accused Putin of being responsible for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. ICC member countries are required to detain suspects if a warrant has been issued.
The warrant put the Mongolian government in a difficult position. Once a communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union, it built relations with the United States, Japan and other new partners after becoming a democracy in the 1990s.
But the landlocked country still depends on its two much larger and more powerful neighbors, Russia and China.
On his first visit to Mongolia in five years, Putin was welcomed by an honor guard in the main square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital.
A small group of protesters tried to show a Ukrainian flag, but were taken away by police.
Mongolia and Russia signed an agreement to study a possible power plant upgrade in Ulaanbaatar, while Putin outlined plans to develop the rail system between the countries.
He also participated in a ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of a joint Soviet and Mongolian victory over Japan's army, when it controlled Manchuria in northeast China. The sides fought over the location of the border between Manchuria and Mongolia in 1939.
Putin's visit ended later the same day, with an honor guard lining his walk to his airplane.
The Russian president has made a series of overseas trips in recent months to try to counter his international isolation over his country's invasion of Ukraine. He visited China in May, North Korea and Vietnam in June, and Kazakhstan in July.
But last year, the government of South Africa — another ICC member — lobbied against Putin coming to Johannesburg for a summit. He joined by video instead.
