Putin warrant will have an impact, legal expert says

Well, for some analysis, let's bring in Mark Ellis, who's in London. He's the executive director of the international Bar Association and and Mark, beyond the the powerful symbolism here, will these warrants have any real impact? Well, I think they already have had impact, and I mean it's quite extraordinary that you have the, the permanent international criminal court, now put on an arrest warrant for sitting head of state.

That doesn't happen often, and so that statement alone, I think, is exceptionally important, not only for the International Community, who's looking for accountability, but, I think, most importantly, for ukrainians. I was there 10 days ago and I can assure you tonight there are hundreds of thousands of ukrainians that are thinking, okay, well, now we're being listened to because the ICC has made a decision to go to the very top and there's nobody that's seen as having more responsibility for the atrocities being committed in Ukraine than Vladimir Putin. So I think it is very significant. It's beyond just being you know something that that that the court might have said: well, we should just have to do this. This is something that has a real legal basis to it. I think it's significant, but Russia, predictably, has dismissed this process.

They're certainly not going to compel Vladimir Putin to to face this Tribunal, so you don't have to be too skeptical to then say: so what? Yeah, I think it's really important with International Justice that you you split this, you kind of bifurcate the. What we've seen now by the court, and that is the legal process to create, pull together sufficient evidence to say that there's a reasonable basis to believe that Mr Putin has committed these crimes and he's accused of directly in being involved with these crimes, and I think that's quite extraordinary.

But the other half of this coin is, of course, the apprehension. Will Mr Putin find himself in the Hague in front of the ICC? No, not anytime soon. But you know, I always say that the, the international Justice plays the long game and we've seen this time and time again with individuals- former heads of States, even sitting heads of States, that's that- that initially believe that they will never be brought to Justice, and eventually they are brought to justice. So this is the time of patience, but it's also a significant step towards ultimately having Mr Putin held accountable for the crimes that he's committed. Really appreciate your analysis.

Thanks for joining us. You're welcome.