Putin issues arrest warrant for British ICC prosecutor in tit-for-tat move after he issued warrant for Russian leader’s arrest

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 9, 2022

Karim Khan was added to the Interior Ministry’s wanted list on Friday
An ICC warrant ordered the arrest of Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova

Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in a tit-for-tat move after the court called for President Vladimir Putin’s arrest on war crimes charges in March.

British prosecutor Karim Khan, 53, was added to the Interior Ministry’s wanted list, Russian media reported on Friday, citing the ministry’s database.

Moscow opened cases against Khan and three ICC judges on March 20.

The ICC warrant, issued on March 17, orders the arrest of Putin and Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, 38, for war crimes charges relating to the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Russia and Putin deny any war crimes during the invasion of Ukraine, saying they are victims of Western aggression and lies.

Pictured: Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan (centre) speaking during the Justice Ministers’ conference at Lancaster House, London, in support of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the investigation into the situation in Ukraine on March 20, 2023

Khan’s picture could be seen on the Russian interior ministry’s database on Friday.

The notice described him as a man born on March 30, 1970 in Edinburgh, Scotland, but did not specify his offence.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which looks into major crimes, said in March that Khan was being probed for the ‘criminal prosecution of a person known to be innocent’.

He was also being investigated for allegedly preparing ‘an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection,’ investigators said.

Kyiv says more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the beginning of Moscow’s offensive in February last year, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, has disputed the credibility of the warrant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed the court’s move as a ‘historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin’.

US President Joe Biden said the arrest warrant for Putin was ‘justified’.

The ICC called for Putin’s arrest on March 17 and accused the despot of committing war crimes by abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families.

It also issued a warrant that day for the arrest of Lvova-Belova on the same charges.

Lvova-Belova had claimed to be the ‘saviour’ of children from Ukraine caught up in Russia’s ‘special military operation’.

In a video from February, Putin was seen approving Lvova-Belova’s personal adoption of a child from Mariupol, a city that has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin immediately slammed the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin, arguing that it was ‘outrageous and unacceptable’.

It insisted that any decisions of the ICC were ‘null and void’ with respect to Russia as Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.

In contrast, Ukraine hailed the decision and said ‘the wheels of justice are turning’.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, who was the lead prosecutor at former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s trial, said it was ‘extremely important’ that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

He suggested that Putin being ‘labelled and treated as a criminal’ could inspire a change in regime or ‘encourage the process of replacement’.

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai region, Russia, on May 19, 2023