February 9, 2025: Last year the Ukrainian government complained to the ICC/International Criminal Court about the mass Russian kidnappings of children and adults. That was one of many atrocities Russia was accused of. In Ukraine Russia reacted to unexpected setbacks by reverting to their traditional total war tactics. This included lots of attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians in general. This behavior was particularly brutal in Russian occupied Ukrainian territory where civilians would not cooperate with Russian demands that they accept Russian rule peacefully. That led to violent reprisals against civilians, including kidnapping children and sending them to Russia. About 14,000 Ukrainian children have disappeared into Russia and many of the younger ones have been adopted by Russian couples to be raised as Russians. As evidence of the atrocities piled up, often in the form of discovering mass graves of civilians executed by the Russians when the Ukrainians regained Russian occupied territory, the ICC indicted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest. Putin is not likely to visit any country that honors ICC warrants. Putin may never be arrested, but the ICC warrant lasts forever since there is no statute of limitations on capital crimes. As a result of this sort of bad behavior, Ukrainian soldiers took to referring to their enemy as Orcs.

Putin generally ignores the ICC, even when it indicts him and publicizes what Putin is accused of. Putin knows the history of past ICC indictments and inability to prosecute most of those indicted. This sort of thing reached its peak in 2013 when the ICC faced a mutiny by the 32 African nations that signed the treaty recognizing the power of the ICC to indict and prosecute people in member states of war crimes. By 2013 122 nations had signed the treaty that allowed the ICC to prosecute its citizens. The ICC indicts and prosecutes if it determines that such crimes have been committed and the national government will not or cannot prosecute. The AU/African Union agreed to support continued membership of African nations in the ICC but only if heads of state are exempt from prosecution. Technically the AU was calling for such prosecutions to be suspended while the accused was in office. This would mean the accused could travel abroad without fear of arrest. At the time, only the heads-of-state of Sudan and Kenya were under ICC indictment but many African leaders worried that they could be next. The ICC is not inclined to grant any immunity because that would just make the worst leaders more intent on staying in power.

Since 2002, the ICC has indicted 68 people and active prosecutions are underway against 35. Unfortunately 31 are fugitives successfully evading arrest and detention. Only four people are on trial. Prosecutions of 33 defendants have been completed. Currently three are serving sentences, seven have completed their imprisonment, Four were acquitted, seven had charges dismissed, four had charges against them withdrawn, and eight died while awaiting prosecution proceedings to be completed.

There are often disputes between ICC and local prosecutors over who should prosecute. The ICC believes that in some cases the local prosecutors are seeking jurisdiction so they can go through the motions of trying the accused and then acquit. The ICC was founded to avoid this and corrupt heads-of-state often have enough local judges and prosecutors on their personal payroll that they can beat any local prosecutions. The ICC is another matter and corrupt politicians fear it.

Some Africans complain that most of the ICC activity has been against African states. While it is true that most war crimes are committed in Africa and that African states are the most likely to have problems with corruption, it is popular in Africa to believe they are being singled out. Thus African mass media, often influenced by corrupt local officials, finds it easy to push the idea that nations elsewhere in the world are deserving of some ICC action. This has become a matter of regional pride and the media are all over it. Less visible is the influence of all those dirty politicians in the region and their influence with African media and diplomats. These crooks often terrorize local media into playing down criticism of corrupt politicians and definitely want the ICC to back off because anti-corruption efforts are becoming increasingly popular and visible. While the ICC doesn’t actually deal with corruption, most of the people it is prosecuting are thieves as well as killers.

Since 2022 bad behavior in Ukraine by Russian troops have been so extensive that in 2023 Russian President Vladimir Putin was accused of war crimes by the ICC. Putin dismissed the ICC as a purveyor of NATO propaganda. Like many indicted African dictators, Putin ignores the ICC but makes sure that his overseas travels do not include any nations that enforce ICC arrest warrants.