Mongolia has legal obligation to arrest him but they wont. Why? He is making the UN look like a joke (he is right about it, mostly) and now he is making the international law a joke.
Re Jokes and international law: Non signatories are Russia, China and the United States
Re Mongolia and why no arrest; They invited him for the 85th anniversary of a joint win over Japan. They share a border.
Also dependent on Russia for energy.
Given the choice whether to appease or stand up to a super powerful, belligerent neighbor appeasement always turns out well historically.
The answer is quite simple. Mongolia cares more about it’s relationship with Putin than it does with it’s relationship with the ICC.
Considering Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China, with cultural/ethnic ties to both, I can understand why they may feel that way.
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I think the question is, why would they? Mongolia abstained from the UN vote condemning the Ukraine invasion. Russia forgave basically all of Mongolia’s debt, and is giving them favorable energy prices. The two countries have pretty good relations, and I doubt Mongolia is looking to poke Russia in the eye by arresting Vladimir Putin.
No argument on my side.
However rest of the world needs to do something about this. Whether that’s booting them out or sanctions. Doing nothing is not an option.
Unfortunately, the “rest of the world” isn’t all on the same side.
If the west comes down on mongolia, we are basically saying to all of Asia “we are going to put you between a rock and a hard place” in making them choose between further allegiance to china/russia, or the west.
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I also think this is the main reason.
I think for most of non-China Asia it’s them coming to us. They’re either afraid of China, and therefore seek ties to the West/U.S. Or not afraid and develop ties as needed.
Mongolia is not afraid of China because it’s aware that both Russia and China want a huge, sparsely-populated buffer region between the frenemies. So it’s not going to get the Tibet treatment.
I worked in Mongolia for 6 years until 2023. I am still in contact with many of my work colleagues on social media.
Mongolia only has a population of 3 million. Any military equipment I saw was 40+ year old, soviet era.
If Russia invaded it would be all over in hours.
Mongolia is dependent on Russia for almost all of its electricity and petroleum.
Mongolia is land locked between Russia and China. All imports and exports have to come via road or rail.
Mongolia has successfully managed to walk a fine line and keep China and Russia at bay since the fall of the soviet union.
On social media there is near total condemnation of “inviting” Putin to visit. There is a lot of discussion on whether Russia diplomats pressured Mongolia to issue the invitation. There is 100% agreement that arresting Putin would have been a very dangerous and stupid thing to do.
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Thanks for this, explains a lot.
Well the Mongolian defense would be over in hours. The part where the People’s Liberation Army pours over the southern border to confront the Russians might take far longer.
Because there’s no way in hell China lets Russia take over Mongolia.