On March 17, the International Criminal Court announced that it had issued arrest warrants for Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and its children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for war crimes involving the forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children. This is not the first time the court has brought charges against a sitting head of state; in 2009, it sought the arrest of Omar al-Bashir, the now former president of Sudan. But there is no question that the warrant for Putin is the most dramatic moment in the court’s two-decade history, given Russia’s status as a permanent member of the Security Council and the widespread international condemnation of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
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