Russian President Putin visits Mongolia in defiance of arrest warrant for war crimes

Russian President Vladimir Putin received a red-carpet welcome in Mongolia on Tuesday in defiance of an international arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The trip is Mr. Putin’s first to a member nation of the International Criminal Court since the court issued the warrant in March 2023 on charges of deporting Ukrainian children and other crimes. Before his visit, Ukraine asked Mongolia to execute the warrant and turn over the Russian president to court authorities in The Hague, Netherlands.

Instead, Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg and an honor guard welcomed Mr. Putin on a red carpet as he stepped off his plane in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Later, Mr. Putin and Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa walked through the city’s Genghis Khan Square past another honor guard and mounted cavalry.

Mr. Putin also held talks with Parliament Speaker Dashzegviin Amarbayasgalan and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene.

“I am very pleased to be in Mongolia, which is friendly to us, and together with the Mongolian people to celebrate a landmark event: our common victories on the Khalkhin Gol River,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Amarbayasgalan, the Russian state-run news agency Tass reported.

Khalkhin Gol, also known as Nomonhan, was the site of a Soviet victory over Japanese troops in eastern Mongolia in 1939 in the run-up to World War II.

“Outside a small number of Western countries, [Mr. Putin] can pretty much go anywhere,” said an East Asia-based Russian academic who spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity. “The majority of countries in the world don’t care about the war in Ukraine.”

“I think he wants to show he can travel with no problems with the ICC warrants. He wants to show that he is quite OK,” said another Russian familiar with Moscow’s trade activities in East Asia. “This is part of a propaganda trend to make Russian people proud of their president.”

Moscow and Ulaanbaatar have long had amicable political and economic relations, and Mongolia relies heavily on Russia for energy. The Associated Press reported that the two governments agreed on upgrades to a power plant in Ulaanbaatar and the continued supply of Russian aviation fuel. Plans for rail development were also discussed.

One issue likely discussed behind closed doors is the future of the long-proposed Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline from eastern Russia to China.

The multibillion-dollar Power of Siberia 1 opened between China and Russia in 2017. The second project, through Mongolia, has been in planning since 2006 but was not mentioned in Ulaanbaatar’s long-term development plans revealed on Aug. 19.

According to Reuters in Moscow, Mr. Putin said just before his trip that talks on the project were proceeding.

Whether pricing or geopolitical concerns in China or Mongolia have delayed the project is unclear. If initiated, the pipeline would offer Moscow a massive long-term foreign exchange windfall and help offset the disappearance of European energy purchases resulting from the outbreak of the war with Ukraine.

Still, the pipeline would increase Moscow’s reliance on Beijing.

That reliance and the advantage China is taking of Russia’s heavily sanctioned economy was raised by one of Russia’s most popular media personalities, nationalist Vladimir Solovyov, just before Mr. Putin’s trip.

“Is China our motherland now?” Mr. Solovyov asked on the TV chat show he has hosted since 2012, as he lamented Chinese imports. “Some say we are oversaturated with Chinese goods.”

“The sovereignty of our economy is very important,” responded one of Mr. Solovyov’s guests, Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov. “We should be overjoyed that the Chinese didn’t spread everything in our territory, which they are capable of, because they are developing so fast and we are not developing.”

Mr. Solovyov wondered aloud whether China could ship goods, such as cars and drone parts, to Russia via Mongolia if Beijing chose to abide by international sanctions against Mr. Putin and Moscow.

Hong Kong media reported last month that the proposed pipeline could offer Russia increased influence in Mongolia or that Ulaanbaatar could be playing Moscow and Beijing against each other.

One shadowy area of geopolitics is the low-key tension between Beijing and Moscow. Though the two countries publicly profess their partnership, China has declined to supply Russia with arms to support its invasion of Ukraine.

Moreover, in the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians have increasingly feared that China — with its surging economy and massive population — could encroach on the underpopulated, underdeveloped Russian Far East. Mongolia’s vast, underpopulated landmass is another area of under-the-radar geopolitical and historical contention.

“Mongolia cannot afford to be in trouble with Russia. It is squeezed between Russia and China, which has swallowed two-thirds of historical Mongolia,” the Russian academic said. “It can’t afford to have bad relations with Russia, which has historically been a major protector against China and Japan. Nobody else will help it.”

Correction: In a previous version, a quote at the bottom of the story was misattributed to the wrong person.