If anyone thought Vladimir Putin would think differently about his alleged war crimes after being the subject of an arrest warrant, they thought wrong. Russia responded with a toilet paper joke when (as reported by NPR) the International Criminal Court issued the warrant “for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
Instead of fretting over a warrant, Putin has been spending time attempting to persuade Russian billionaires into pouring their money into the economy, which is flagging due to sanctions and companies pulling their business from Russia due to the war. And Putin’s also the focus of scrutiny regarding dozens of critics and ex-associates suffering mysterious “suicides” like wandering out of skyscraper windows. So, hearing the Kremlin’s official “meh”-like response to the arrest warrant seems to be on brand:
“The very question itself is outrageous and unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Russia, like a number of other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, and therefore any of its decisions are insignificant for the Russian Federation from a legal viewpoint.”
In other words, Putin isn’t sweating the warrant. In fact, he spent part of the subsequent days in Ukraine to visit Mariupol, where Russian troops have found rare success amid a largely disastrous invasion that has led to Ukraine taking back most initially claimed territory from Russia.
In Ukraine, Putin was not welcome by all, as one can imagine. That includes (according to the BBC), Mariupol’s exiled mayor, Vadym Boychenko, who declared Putin to be a “criminal” who decided to “return to the scene of the crime.” Boychenko further declared, “He’s come to see what he will be punished for.” And the International Criminal Court agrees.