Biden Cheers Putin Arrest Warrant but Admits It's Mostly Virtue Signaling

President Joe Biden said on Friday that he thinks it's "justified" that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia's President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes while admitting that the move is mostly symbolic as neither Russia nor the United States recognize its jurisdiction.

“I think it’s justified,” Biden told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “But the question is, it’s not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”

Biden later told reporters that he believes Putin had “clearly committed war crimes.”

The ICC on Friday formally accused Putin of war crimes.

International law bars occupying powers from transferring civilians from occupied areas to other territories.

Hofmanski said the warrant would remain under seal to protect the identities of the allegedly abducted children.

“Nevertheless, the judges of the chamber dealing with this case decided to make the existence of the warrants public in the interest of justice and to prevent the commission of future crimes,” he said.

The ICC's announcement was met with a critical response by the Kremlin, while Ukrainian leaders issued enthusiastic praise.

"We consider the very formulation of the issue outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, as well as several other states, do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for Russia in terms of law," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Asked by reporters whether the existence of the arrest warrant would impact Putin's international travel, Peskov declined to offer specifics, saying only that "I have nothing to add on this topic."

In a similar vein, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ICC's decisions have no legal power in Russia and so the warrant is meaningless.

"The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it."

"Who would have thought 15 years ago that in the West taking care of children, saving them, and helping them would become a criminal offence," she added, offering the view that Russia's deportations of Ukrainian children are a form of rescue, not abduction.

Besides seeking Putin’s arrest, the ICC on Friday also announced it had issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

“The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory” from Feb. 24, 2022, the court said, which marks the date of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.”

Lvova-Belova was cited by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency as saying that the removal of children from the war zone is a humanitarian act and the arrest warrant is "something very strange."

"It's great that the international community has appreciated this work to help the children of our country: that we don't leave them in war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people."

“The execution depends on international cooperation,” Hofmanski said.

While it’s unclear which countries might lend a hand to efforts to take Putin into custody, Russia has made clear it has no intention of cooperating and sees the move as a provocation.

"Yankees, hands off Putin!" Vyacheslav Volodin, Russia's Parliament Speaker and close Putin ally said on Telegram, calling the move evidence of Western "hysteria."

"We regard any attacks on the President of the Russian Federation as aggression against our country," he added.