Rita Odafe
. “If this happens, we will have to arrest Putin if he enters German territory.”
Germany’s Justice Minister Marco Buschmann has declared that if the International Criminal Court (ICC) requests enforcement, the country will have to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he enters German territory. On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, due to their involvement in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. This makes Putin the third incumbent state leader to receive an ICC arrest warrant, following Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
The ICC’s decision requires 123 countries that are ICC members to arrest Putin and send him to The Hague if he enters their territory. According to the ICC, there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that Putin is directly responsible for overseeing the forced kidnapping and relocation of over 16,000 Ukrainian children since the start of the full-scale invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the actual number might be much higher. Additionally, Russian forces have unlawfully transferred or deported thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, violating the Geneva Conventions.
Buschmann has stated that if the ICC approaches Interpol and the contracting states for enforcement, Germany will have to arrest Putin if he enters German territory. Putin is fluent in German and worked in the country as a KGB agent during the Soviet Union era.
