Putin and the ICC: history shows just how hard it is to bring a head of state to justice
THE arrest warrants issued recently by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, represent the first time officials of a permanent member of the United Nations security council have been indicted for a war crime. Author CATHERINE GEGOUT, Associate Professor in International Relations, University of Nottingham The charge is that they presided over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from areas occupied by the Russian military. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” the ICC said in a statement on…