Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan received Putin Andrey Gordeev/Sputnik/Pool/via Portal December 6, 2023
The President of Russia, Wladimir Putinlanded this Tuesday (5) shortly before 2 p.m. (7 a.m. Brazilian time) in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, for a rare trip abroad since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Despite an arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the ICC (International Criminal Court) in March last year, the president is also expected to visit Saudi Arabia in the coming days.
Putin is accused of being responsible for the illegal deportation of at least a hundred children from Ukraine after Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022.
Since the start of the war, Putin has only traveled to nine countries China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus that are very close to Russia politically and geographically.
Neither the United Arab Emirates nor Saudi Arabia signed the document establishing the International Criminal Court and are not part of the court. Therefore, Putin will avoid any risk of arrest on this trip.
The situation is different, for example, with the possible involvement of the Russian leader G20 summit in Brazil in 2024. The country is a signatory to the statutes that created the court and must therefore comply with the orders issued by the institution.