Hungary will not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he enters the country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff said on Thursday. He claimed that such an approach would have no legal basis, although there is a warrant for the arrest of the Kremlin leader by the International Criminal Court, writes Reuters.

Hungary has signed and ratified the Rome Statute, which is the basis for the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the institution that issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on March 17, charging him with war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine to Russia.

“We cannot arrest the President of Russia”

Asked whether Putin would be arrested if he went to Hungary, Gergely Gulyash, Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, said the Rome Statute was not part of the Hungarian legal system.

• “We can refer to the Hungarian law and, based on it, we cannot arrest the president of Russia, because the statute of the ICC is not made public in Hungary,” Gulyash said.

In response to another question, a Hungarian official said the government in Budapest had not formed a “position” on Putin’s arrest warrant.

• “These decisions are not the most joyful because they lead to further escalation, not peace. This is my personal, subjective opinion,” added Viktor Orban’s adviser.

Vladimir Putin – the third sitting president for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant – is unlikely to appear in court in the near future. But the warrant means the Russian president could be arrested and sent to The Hague if he goes to any of the ICC member states.

It will be recalled that on March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for the war crime of illegal deportation of at least 100 children from Ukraine. The ruling obliges the court’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and hand him over to The Hague for trial if he enters their territory.

In the first reaction from Moscow, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, stated in her Telegram channel:

• “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no significance 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 has no obligations under it.”

On Sunday, Putin defiantly visited Mariupol, a Ukrainian city in the Donetsk region occupied by Moscow forces.