German minister: authorities will be obligated to detain Putin if he arrives in Germany

German authorities will be mandated to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he visits the country in compliance with the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in an interview with Bild.

“I expect that the ICC would quickly appeal to Interpol as well as member states to ask them to fulfil the arrest warrant. Germany then will be obligated to arrest Putin if he enters the country and transfer him to the ICC,” he said.

Following the comment, Alexander Bastrykin, Russia’s Investigative Committee chief, instructed his agency to provide a legal assessment of the German minister’s statement regarding the “arrest of Russian citizens”.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin on 17 March. Moreover, the court wants Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova to be arrested as well. They are suspected of committing a war crime of unlawfully deporting Ukrainians from the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, particularly children, the court’s press release reads.

“The thing is that no one is above the law. The International Criminal Court is the right institution to investigate war crimes,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted.