FILE – This mix of pictures exhibits Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, in Moscow on Could 9, 2025, and President Donald Trump in Washington on Aug. 1. The 2 are in talks to satisfy to debate the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (AP Photograph/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool. Mark Schiefelbein/AP/AP
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Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool. Mark Schiefelbein/AP/AP
President Trump mentioned his assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to debate an finish to the conflict in Ukraine is ready to occur “very shortly” at a date and site that Trump mentioned he would announce “a bit bit later” on Friday.
When — and, most critically, the place — these talks might occur remains to be unclear. However discovering impartial territory for these negotiations could also be tough as Putin faces the specter of arrest from the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC).
In 2023, the ICC within the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin on conflict crime prices. This now limits the choices for the place Trump and Putin can meet because the Russian president faces attainable arrest in any of the greater than 120 ICC member nations.
A normal view of the outside of the Worldwide Legal Courtroom in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025.
Omar Havana/AP/AP
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Omar Havana/AP/AP
What’s the ICC and why can it problem arrest warrants?
In response to the necessity for a everlasting worldwide court docket addressing crimes dedicated throughout conflict, the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC), which is predicated in The Hague, Netherlands, formally started working in July 2002.
Since 1999, 125 nations have signed onto the Rome Statute, establishing the worldwide court docket. Neither the U.S. or Russia are member states. Ukraine grew to become a member in 2024.
The ICC has authority to pursue prison prices, however solely on probably the most severe crimes: genocide, crimes in opposition to humanity, conflict crimes and the crime of aggression.
The court docket would not have its personal police power or enforcement physique, so it depends on nations’ cooperation to make arrests, switch arrested folks to ICC detention in The Hague and to implement sentences.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin two years in the past over alleged conflict crimes tied to allegations Russia has forcibly kidnapped Ukrainian kids to Russia. The ICC additionally issued a warrant on the time for Putin’s commissioner for kids’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
Russian officers have not denied the arrival of Ukrainian kids within the nation, however have characterised their arrival as a part of a humanitarian program for deserted, war-traumatized orphans.
Putin is not the one sitting head of state to face such severe prices from the ICC. Final November, the worldwide court docket issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity within the Gaza Strip. The court docket additionally issued warrants for Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former protection minister, Muhammad Deif, Hamas’ navy chief whom Israel says it killed in August, in addition to different Hamas officers.
Israel contested the allegations in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant.
‘Russians do not care concerning the ICC’
Critics and authorities leaders have repeatedly questioned the ability and authority of the ICC.
“Russians do not care concerning the ICC,” mentioned Nina Khrushcheva, a global affairs professor for The New Faculty in New York, particularly due to the notion that the U.S. has been hypocritical with regards to the court docket.
When the ICC filed arrest warrants in opposition to Netanyahu, then-President Joe Biden launched a press release that mentioned, “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli leaders is outrageous. Let me be clear as soon as once more: regardless of the ICC may suggest, there isn’t a equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We’ll all the time stand with Israel in opposition to threats to its safety.”
However when the ICC issued a warrant in opposition to Putin, the response from the U.S. was extra supportive of the worldwide physique. On the time, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson informed NPR, “There isn’t a doubt that Russia is committing conflict crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we now have been clear that these accountable should be held accountable. The ICC prosecutor is an unbiased actor and makes his personal prosecutorial selections primarily based on the proof earlier than him. We assist accountability for perpetrators of conflict crimes.”
Khrushcheva mentioned, “So for Putin, it is yet one more affirmation for him that the West is pretty hypocritical, and so he would not take note of it.”
Again in September, Putin traveled to Mongolia, an ICC member since 2002. The journey went easily, and Putin was by no means taken into custody.
The view of the court docket is that, as a member state, Mongolia had an obligation to honor the ICC’s arrest warrant, in line with David Bosco, professor at Indiana College, who spoke to NPR’s All Issues Thought of final yr.
However, Bosco mentioned, “Mongolia can be located proper between Russia and China — two nations that it has monumental financial linkages with. And neither of these nations is a member of the ICC. Neither of them are pleasant to the ICC. And Mongolia clearly determined that its financial and diplomatic pursuits outweighed its authorized obligations as a court docket member.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff, proper, shake palms throughout their assembly on the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.
Gavriil Grigorov/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin
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Gavriil Grigorov/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin
What are the leaders’ choices?
Whereas consultants and analysts have lengthy mentioned the prospect of an arrest of Putin is extraordinarily slim, it is unlikely that the Russian chief would take the possibility and maintain such a big assembly on unfriendly floor, Khrushcheva mentioned.
So this nonetheless seemingly guidelines out lots of the 125 nations listed as ICC members. This leaves technically about 70 nations nonetheless obtainable, however fewer nonetheless are pleasant to each Russia and the U.S.
Khrushcheva says the Center East appears to be probably the most promising for either side to satisfy, given each Russia and the U.S. have good relations with a number of nations there.
“Both the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia … Turkey are all potential choices,” she mentioned.
That is made much more seemingly because of the reality prior talks between Russia and Ukraine had been beforehand held in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Many countries within the Center East have “raised their standing fairly a bit,” as a result of they’ve held these impartial grounds for negotiation, Khrushcheva mentioned.
And the Center East has performed an more and more massive position in internet hosting high-stakes worldwide negotiations. The small, rich Arab Gulf nation of Qatar, additionally a U.S. ally, served as the house for delicate negotiations between Israel and Hamas, because the conflict in Gaza started in October 2023. Egypt additionally performed a vital position in mediating that battle.
