Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey on April 27 to inaugurate the country’s first nuclear power plant built by Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom, Reuters reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir PutinPhoto: Vyacheslav Prokofiev / Sputnik / Profimedia

“Mr. Putin may come to Turkey on April 27 for the inauguration ceremony. Or we could take part in the ceremony online,” Erdoğan said on the private TV channel ATV.

The shadow of an arrest warrant

It will be recalled that on March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes due to the 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.

Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council and former President of the country Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday that the possible arrest of Putin under the mandate of the International Criminal Court would be tantamount to declaring war on Russia.

And the President of the State Duma of Russia, Vyacheslav Volodin, proposed on Saturday to ban the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest, in Russia, and to punish those who provide assistance to this institution. , reports Reuters.