Peter Rhodes on a songbird, a strange old lady - and who's brave enough to slap the handcuffs on Putin?
Quietly forgotten by us all in the haggling over Ukraine is the awkward fact that two years ago, in March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC), following an investigation of war crimes, issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and other Russians for crimes of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the war.
And what that means under international law is that if Putin leaves Russia and arrives in any of the 125 countries which recognise the ICC, he could be instantly arrested and shipped off to the Hague for trial. Excellent, right? Now, the tricky bit.
How would the average chief of police in one of those 125 countries react to the news that Putin was about to land at his local airport? Give all his officers 24-hour leave, perhaps? This may seem rather unprincipled but it greatly reduces the police chief's chances, at some time in the future. of falling out of a window.
