• The Hague-based court issued the warrant over Putin's invasion of Ukraine accusing him of committing war crimes.
• The ICC said in a statement it had reasonable grounds to believe Putin committed the crimes directly and with help from others.
Image: FILE
Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has dismissed as empty talk the issuance of the arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the ICC.
The Hague-based court issued the warrant over Putin's invasion of Ukraine accusing him of committing war crimes.
"To issue an ICC warrant of arrest on Putin is an unnecessary act of aggression. It is hot air, but hot air also burns," Ngunyi said in a tweet hours after the court pronounced itself on the matter.
His reasoning likely emanates from the fact that Russia is not a signatory of the International Criminal Court and as such, the court cannot exercise jurisdiction within the country's territory.
Further, ICC has no powers to arrest suspects and it is highly unlikely that Moscow, which has since dismissed the allegations against Putin as outrageous, will extradite him to face trial.
The ICC said in a statement it had reasonable grounds to believe Putin committed the crimes directly and with help from others.
The court majorly centred its allegations on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia soon after Putin ordered the invasion of its former USSR partner on February 24, 2022.
ICC said the former KGB foreign intelligence officer failed to use his powers as President to stop the deportation of the children.
Ngunyi said the warrant of arrest will amount to nothing particularly because politics influences much of ICC's decisions.
"Africa must pronounce itself on this because ICC is a court of politics," he said.
The mention of political influence in ICC processes relates a lot to Africa since most of those indicted at the court are from the continent.
For instance, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to have an arrest warrant issued against him.
But despite the warrant being issued on March 4, 2009, Bashir remained in power for over a decade until he was deposed in a military coup on October 25, 2021.
Uganda and Djibouti refused to comply with an ICC request to arrest and hand over Bashir to the court.
Bashir was accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur, five years before the arrest warrant was issued.
Back home in Kenya, former President Uhuru Kenyatta and his successor William Ruto were also accused by the court over their alleged involvement in the 2007/08 post-poll chaos that claimed over 1,000 lives.
Charges against the two leaders were later dropped for lack of evidence.
The court dropped charges against Uhuru on March 13, 2015, while charges against Ruto were dismissed on April 5, 2016.
Both Uhuru and Ruto cited a political witch-hunt and blamed their archrival in the 2007 presidential election Raila Odinga for fixing them at the court.