ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian president, children’s rights commissioner

The ​International Criminal Court (ICC) traditionally investigates and tries individuals for crimes involving the international community such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crimes of aggression.

An ICC spokesperson said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Vladimir Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for committing the acts directly, jointly with others or through others or by failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.

It also alleges there are reasonable grounds to believe Maria Lvova-Belova also bears individual criminal responsibility for acts directly, jointly with others or through others in relation to the crimes.

“The chamber considered that the warrants are secret in order to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation,” the ICC spokesperson said.

“Nevertheless, mindful that the conduct addressed in the present situation is allegedly ongoing, and that the public awareness of the warrants may contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes, the chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to authorise the registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the chamber.

“The abovementioned warrants of arrests were issued pursuant to the applications submitted by the prosecution on 22 February 2023.”

Robert Dougherty

Robert is a senior journalist who has previously worked for Seven West Media in Western Australia, as well as Fairfax Media and Australian Community Media in New South Wales. He has produced national headlines, photography and videography of emergency services, business, community, defence and government news across Australia. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Public Relations and Journalism at Curtin University, attended student exchange program with Fudan University and holds Tier 1 General Advice certification for Kaplan Professional. Reach out via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via LinkedIn.