Could Putin be arrested in the US during Trump meeting?

Vladimir Putin is a wanted man.

For over two years, the Russian leader has been the focus of an international arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The warrant seeks to haul the 72-year-old before a tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for allegedly trafficking Ukrainian children from occupied territories into Russia.

Putin is arguably the most powerful target of the International Criminal Court in its 21-year history, and the most high-profile leader to be formally accused of war crimes since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi officials.

Under the Rome Statute, all countries that are a part of the ICC are supposed to detain all suspects with a warrant if they set foot on their soil.

Could Putin’s upcoming visit to Alaska for a sit-down with President Donald Trump see him led off in handcuffs?

In which countries can Putin be arrested?

By law, all members of the ICC are required to use arrest warrants issued by the court.

But Russia, Israel, and the United States are not a part of the court, meaning they don’t have to comply.

We won’t be seeing Putin in handcuffs after his visit to speak with Trump tomorrow, but in dozens of other countries, he could be arrested.

When Putin visited Mongolia in late 2024, the country didn’t comply with the arrest orders – claiming its hands were ‘tied’.

A government spokesperson told Politico that Mongolia is energy dependent on both its major neighbours, Russia and China, making it difficult for them to enact the arrest warrant.

The spokesperson explained: ‘Mongolia imports 95% of its petroleum products and over 20% of electricity from our immediate neighbourhood, which has previously suffered interruption for technical reasons.

‘Mongolia has always maintained a policy of neutrality in all its diplomatic relations, as demonstrated in our statements of record to date.’

Despite its precarious political position, Mongolia is required to act upon the ICC’s warrants as a member, and there’s a possibility the country could face prosecution for failing to arrest Putin.

The EU, Ukraine and international organisations like Amnesty International have previously urged Mongolia to act on its ICC obligations.

What will Putin and Trump talk about?

The US President and Russian President will sit down in the US’s most northern state, which has been chosen due to its close proximity to Russia, on August 15.

Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump suggested an agreement would involve some exchange of land between Ukraine and Russia.

‘There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,’ the Republican president said. A spokesperson for the Kremlin has confirmed the summit.

In a video address to the nation posted on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Zelensky said that any decisions without Ukraine would be decisions against peace.

Putin, meanwhile, is ‘making huge progress militarily’ in Ukraine and is able to use the meeting to secure two big objectives – demonstrating to Trump he is ‘reasonable’ enough to negotiate, and buying time on the battlefield.

The US President may have appeared to sharpen his stance against his Russian counterpart in recent weeks, notably hitting India with punitive tariffs for buying Russia’s oil.

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