Mongolia ready to turn blind eye to ICC in exchange for economic gains - political analyst on Putin's visit

He spoke about this on the air of the Espreso TV channel.

“Ulaanbaatar clearly understands that it will not be punished for this, because today the spokesperson for the International Criminal Court said that it can be used against a country that disobeyed an arrest warrant. The result will be a deep concern or something like that, and globally, Ulaanbaatar will neither win nor lose anything from this. In the worst case, it will be excluded from this structure, and this will not have serious consequences for Mongolia,” the political scientist noted.

The important point is why Ulaanbaatar did this: “There was a very clear buy-in of the Mongolian leadership by the Russian Federation. The fact is that Russia has excluded Mongolia from its embargo on the supply of 95 octane gasoline outside the Russian Federation. Now there is a ban on the export of 95 octane gasoline from Russia for the next six months, but Ulaanbaatar is excluded from this list. This is critical for Mongolia, and there is even a statement by the Prime Minister of Mongolia, who said that they will live through the winter with gasoline and fuel from the Russian Federation, and there will be no problems for Mongolia. Also, Mongolia is now demanding that the Russian Federation remove duties on imports of Mongolian products to Russia for 800 goods that are critical to the Mongolian economy. There is no decision on this yet, but I am sure that for most of these goods the duties will be removed or significantly reduced,” Denysenko said.

According to him, Mongolia has never been an enemy of the Russian Federation.

“Mongolia is sandwiched between two countries: it's a small country with a small population between huge Russia and huge China. And it has a history of not always positive relations with both countries. Therefore, the Mongols made a political decision that they are ready to turn a blind eye to the International Criminal Court in exchange for certain economic preferences. This is only what lies on the surface. We can go on to say that Mongolia is a very interesting country with enormous natural resources, from copper to many other important metals. Not only China and Russia are interested in it, but also a number of very influential, democratic countries that will not do anything to Mongolia. There is also a trade going on now about who will build a nuclear power plant in Mongolia: Russia's Rosatom or the French. Both sides, the French and the Russians, say they are ready and are already winning this competition. Therefore, there may be bidding for big discounts from Rosatom. Unfortunately, democracy also has its own prices in the modern world, and we should be cynical about this, as many other countries are,” he said.

Details of Putin's visit to Mongolia

On August 30, the Kremlin press service announced that Putin was to visit Mongolia on September 3 at the invitation of President Ukhnagiin Khurelsukh. Putin's trip to Mongolia will be his first visit to a country that has ratified the Rome Statute. At the same time, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin was not afraid of the Russian leader's arrest.

On the same day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on the Mongolian authorities to arrest Putin and hand him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The International Criminal Court stated that the Mongolian authorities, in accordance with their obligations, should arrest Vladimir Putin if he visits the country.

In addition, Human Rights Watch called on Mongolia to arrest Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, September 2, Putin arrived in Mongolia on a visit at the invitation of President Ukhnagiin Khurelsukh.