Arrest Warrant Issued for Putin

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

If Russian President Vlad Putin has any plans for a spring get-away this year, they probably don't include a tour of the beautiful tulip fields of Holland.  In fact, Holland (the Netherlands) is just one of many countries that Putin is likely to never visit again.

Yesterday the International Criminal Court, which is located in the city of The Hague in Holland (the Netherlands) issued an arrest warrant for Putin charging him with the war crime of forcefully removing Ukrainian children from their home country and relocating them in the Russian Federation.  The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.  It is believed that over 16,000 children have been "deported" from Ukraine to Russia and placed in group homes or adopted by Russian families - a process that many regard as kidnapping.

Ukraine is not a member of the ICC global court, but its government has granted jurisdiction to the court over matters in Ukraine.   Russia, China, and the United States are also not members of the International Criminal Court, but President Biden has already sided with the ICC on its decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin.  The international court has no policing powers of its own, and it has to rely on enforcement by the 123 countries which are members - and if Putin were to visit one of those countries he could conceivably be arrested and turned over to the ICC in The Hague.  The International Criminal Court has the power to issue sentences of up to life in prison.

While the prospect that the Russian president will ever be cuffed, stuffed, and shipped off to The Hague to stand trial for the war crime of kidnapping children and using them as the spoils of war is exceedingly slim,  just the fact that a majority of the world's nations have stood tall and accused him of it is worth something. Putin's true character is coming into sharper focus, and its not a pretty sight!

Putin has been weighed, he has been measured, and he has been found lacking - in basic humanity.