Legal loophole protects Putin from Alaska arrest

Vladimir Putin has been able to put to rest any fears of being placed in handcuffs during his upcoming trip to Alaska to meet with Donald Trump thanks to a significant legal “loophole” Knewz.com can reveal. Putin, 72, is scheduled to meet with Trump, 79, on Friday, August 15, to discuss a permanent ceasefire in the ongoing Ukraine war. While the planned meeting has sparked a fury of political discourse, pundits were quick to point out a standing arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Putin in March 2023, one year after his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The ICC is an intergovernmental organization and tribunal established in 2002 under the Rome Statute and is the only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. British lawyer and ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan said in a statement that the charges against Putin are based on the grounds he is responsible “for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” Under the warrant, Putin risks arrest if he steps foot in any of the 125 ICC countries including the U.K., France, Germany and Canada. While the ICC can prosecute individuals, it is intended to work with national justice systems and exercises its jurisdiction when countries are unwilling or unable to bring perpetrators to justice.

Because the U.S. is among the handful of countries that aren’t members of the ICC, Putin’s arrest warrant is effectively useless in Alaska. Security expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon reportedly said this means Trump “is not bound to arrest Putin.” He added that Putin “can roam around the world, in theory, in any countries that are not members of the ICC.” He further explained, “A warrant from the ICC means nothing in those countries that are not signatories to it. And the Americans aren’t, so he can go to Alaska. That is the loophole.” De Bretton-Gordon suggested the alleged war criminal is well aware of the “loophole” and specifically chose Alaska as the summit’s location for this reason. “He can operate exactly how he sees fit. He wouldn’t have gone anywhere where potentially he could be arrested,” he said. While the “loophole” essentially protects Putin from being cuffed during his U.S. trip, de Bretton-Gordon noted the Kremlin will likely still be on high-alert and won’t be taking any chances of their leader being thrown behind bars.

“Trump will have given Putin some cast-iron agreement he won’t be arrested for the criminal proceedings against him,” de Bretton-Gordon said, adding that there are probably other reasons the paranoid 72-year-old chose nearby Alaska, explaining, “President Putin is absolutely fixated about his own security, and his desire not to wander out of friendly airspace. There’s not much of that to Alaska – would only be in international airspace for a few miles.” Of course, Russia once owned the United States’ most northern territory and sold it to the states in 1867 for $7.2million, or less than two cents per acre.

Meanwhile, a top Russian advisor warned that “titanic efforts” are underway to discredit and disrupt the meeting. Kirill Dmitriev posted on Telegram that “a number of countries are interested in continuing the conflict” in Ukraine and “will make titanic efforts to disrupt the planned meeting between President Putin and President Trump.” Dmitriev did not elaborate or provide more details on the alleged sinister plans to undermine the peace talks.