Far away from the battlefields in Ukraine or the halls of the Kremlin, the global spotlight turned briefly to Ulaanbaatar where Russian President Vladimir Putin spent a day being feted by the leaders of Mongolia.

Putin had arrived in the Mongolian capital the previous night, on September 2, in defiance of the warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The warrant was issued for alleged war crimes committed amid the Ukraine conflict, including the deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Mongolia, since 2002 party to the Rome statute that created the ICC, resisted calls to arrest Putin made by Ukraine. Instead, Putin was ushered between lavish events around Ulaanbaatar where he walked along red carpets and received flowers from children in the Mongolian capital’s central square. 

Putin’s visit looked as if it might have been the result of political pressure placed on Ulaanbaatar, according to Julian Dierkes, a professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert on Mongolian politics.

“Presumably, the initiative toward this visit has come from Putin, even though it is formally at the invitation of the government of Mongolia and President Khurelsukh [Ukhnaa] more specifically,” wrote Dierkes in a blog post.

Dierkes said he believed Mongolia was in no position to say no to Putin. While stating he is not an expert in Russian politics, Dierkes suggested that the calculation behind the visit was entirely Russian, with Putin’s concern for Mongolia-Russia relations merely a sideshow as he looked for ways to poke holes in the arrest warrant against him.

“Putin wants to assert his power and defiance against the ICC and ‘the West’ more generally, the Khalkhin Gol anniversary provides the occasion, and Mongolia is a bit of a victim to this calculation.”

The awkwardness of the visit was heightened by the fact that last December, the ICC appointed a Mongolian judge to its body, in a first for the northeast Asian country. But the court, based in The Hague, has no ability to enforce its arrest warrants, relying instead on member countries.

On September 2, the court sent a letter to Battsetseg Batmumkh, Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, requesting the arrest of Putin and noting that parties to the Rome Statute are obliged to cooperate with the court.

As his visit to Mongolian continued on September 3, Putin stood alongside Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa and bowed to a bronze statue of the 13th century warlord Ghengis Khan at one end of the square. Crowds were gathered along the periphery to catch a glimpse of the Russian autocrat. One group of protestors were bundled into a police van before the official ceremonies.

Putin’s visit was ostensibly to honour Soviet Russian and Mongolian soldiers who joined forces to fend off an invasion by Japanese forces in eastern Mongolia 85 years ago.

While in Ulaanbaatar, Putin also signed energy agreements with Mongolia, including one for the renovation of a Soviet-era power station in the capital. Putin and Khurelsukh also agreed to cooperate on protecting the Selenge River, which flows from Mongolia to Lake Baikal.

Small groups of protestors stood at prominent locations in the city to wave the Ukrainian flag. A banner unfurled on the central square on September 2 read “Get war criminal Putin out of here.” A protestor named B. Battuvshin decried the visit, saying on local TV that Mongolia was ignoring calls for Putin’s arrest from the international community.

“He is bringing Mongolia down,” said Battuvshin.

Reaction from Ulaanbaatar’s diplomatic community was swift. Ukrainian flags flew above several diplomatic missions around the city. A spokesperson for the US embassy in Ulaanbaatar hailed Mongolia as a proud “third neighbour” while at the same time voicing concern over Putin’s visit.

“We don’t believe any country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine. There is no doubt that members of Russia’s forces and other Russian officials are committing war crimes or other violations of international law in Ukraine and we have been clear that those responsible must be held to account,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. 

Mongolia was a Soviet client state for 70 years until 1990 when it abandoned communism in favour of capitalism and multiparty elections. While corruption has plagued the country and protests against the government are common, it has remained politically stable and its elections are widely considered free and fair.

This is Putin’s first visit to an ICC member country since the issuing of the arrest warrant. Putin did not attend a meeting of BRICS countries held in August last year in ICC member country South Africa, instead joining the occasion with a video call. If he had arrived in South Africa, the country would have faced the same pressure to arrest Putin that Mongolia has endured in the past several days.

Mongolia is, however, in a rather different situation to South Africa. It shares a long border with Russia and has maintained good ties with the country even since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Mongolia is also heavily reliant on Russian gasoline and energy. Around 95% of Mongolia’s petroleum products come from Russia.

Not bowing to the whims of Moscow would leave Mongolia economically exposed. 

Mongolia has experienced political pressure along its southern border too. In 2016 China shut down a key border crossing after a visit to Ulaanbaatar paid by the Dalai Lama. Ulaanbaatar later said that the Dalai Lama would not be permitted on Mongolian soil again.