BISHKEK,
Kyrgyzstan
President of Russia, Vladimir
Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan Thursday, visiting abroad for the first time since
the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March.Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov (R) walking with Russia's President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival at the Manas International Airport in Bishkek.
President Putin is wanted by
the court over the deportation of Ukrainian children. Its ruling requires
members of the ICC, which does not include Kyrgyzstan, to make the arrest if he
sets foot on their territory.
Russian news agencies TASS,
Interfax and RIA Novosti reported early Thursday morning that Putin had arrived
in Kyrgyzstan.
He is due to meet his Kyrgyz
counterpart Sadyr Japarov and to take part in a summit of the Commonwealth of
Independent States with his Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko and other
regional leaders.
The long-time leader has
rarely left Russia since launching the Ukraine offensive in February 2022.
This year, he has travelled
only to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, with his last foreign trips to
Belarus and Kyrgyzstan last December -- a far cry from the busy international
schedule he had earlier in his rule.
Now, in a sign of Russia's
isolation, he is planning a visit to North Korea next, as well as China.
Moscow has likened the
prospect of Putin being arrested abroad to an act of war, casting the warrant
as "illegal".
In practice, however, it has
taken precautions: in August, Russia sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to a
BRICS summit in ICC member South Africa, instead of Putin.
While the full-scale Ukraine
offensive made Putin a persona-non-grata in the Western world, the ICC ruling
virtually closed the door to a large part of the globe for him.
Russians who want to snitch on
those who oppose Putin’s war or engage in any unacceptable political or
anti-social activity can now use modern technology to pass on their
accusations.
The Rome Statute, a treaty
requiring members to adhere to ICC rulings, has been ratified by 123 countries.
The ruling caused a legal
headache for ICC member South Africa, which hosted the BRICS summit to which
Putin was invited.
In a last-minute decision,
Moscow sent its foreign minister instead of Putin.
"Why should I create some
problems for our friends during an event?" Putin said this month,
commenting on his absence from Johannesburg.
"If I come, a political
show will start," he added.
Putin is wanted alongside his
children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the war crime of
allegedly unlawfully deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Moscow rejects the
allegations.
The visit comes amid some
rifts among Russia's allies.
Armenian leader Nikol
Pashinyan will skip the summit attended by Putin, host country Kyrgyzstan
announced two days before the event.
Pashinyan has criticised
Moscow for not intervening when Azerbaijan launched a successful offensive to
take over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region last month.
His snub came after Armenian
lawmakers moved to join the ICC, angering Moscow and potentially limiting
Putin's travel options further.
Putin is planning to meet with
the leader of Armenia's arch-foe, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.
Moscow's Ukraine offensive has
also rattled its Central Asian partners.
Putin visited all five
regional countries -- Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Kyrgyzstan -- in 2022, portraying them as Russia's core allies.
Ahead of Putin's trip,
Kyrgyzstan said it had ratified an agreement for a common air defence system
with Russia.
Moscow has similar deals with
other allied countries including Kazakhstan, Belarus and Tajikistan.
But suspicion of Russia in
parts of the region has grown. None of the Central Asian countries supported
Russia in a key UN vote on Ukraine last year.
In September, Kazakhstan even
vowed to comply with the massive Western sanctions on Russia, with its leader
saying Astana will not help Moscow circumvent them.
Central Asian countries, which
have many citizens working in Russia, have warned their people not to fight in
Ukraine alongside Moscow's forces.
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