A one-way ticket! Any foreign trip by Vladimir Putin could be his last

Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to join the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, but there was one catch - he could be arrested and extradited to The Hague to stand trial for war crimes committed in Ukraine, Forbes writes.

It is known that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued an arrest warrant for Putin, so Brazil, as a member of the court, has an international obligation to detain anyone who sets foot in the country while he is wanted by the ICC.

"During the July meeting, Kremlin commissars put pressure on the Brazilian president to ensure that Putin would not be detained "at the behest of the ICC," the article states.

At the same time, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hesitated, but still refused to grant Putin immunity, says Peter Dickinson, an analyst at the Atlantic Council.

The publication emphasizes that despite Putin's image as an "omnipotent ruler", his movements around the world have become increasingly restricted since he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"When his cruise missiles began bombing modern Ukrainian medical centers and ancient cultural sites of the world cultural heritage, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada and the United States immediately opposed him," the article emphasizes.

The publication recalls that to date, the ban on Putin's entry into the ICC member states applies to 125 countries:

19 in the Asia-Pacific region,

28 in Latin America and the Caribbean,

33 in Africa,

45 in Europe.

According to Dickinson, the Kremlin's discontent with the ban began two years ago, before the next BRICS summit.

"Determined to derail the summit, Putin's aides threatened South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that any attempt to detain Putin during the summit would be considered an act of war," he added.

However, as Forbes writes, in a sense the Russian president is already in prison.

"From the ban on Russian planes flying over European and North American airspace to the threat of handcuffing and extradited by more than half the countries in the world - those that have joined the International Criminal Court - Putin's world and freedom of movement are shrinking," the magazine wrote.

Dickinson added:

"Today, Putin is very cautious wherever he goes.“

According to the scholar, unless countries provide the Russian president with a guarantee against arrest, he "does not travel to countries that are members of the International Criminal Court“.

"He also does not seem to want to take long trips that could expose him to the risk of unplanned stops in ICC member states“, Dickinson said.

The publication concludes that any aircraft malfunction that forces Putin's plane to land in Brussels, London, Rome, Paris, Stockholm, Tokyo or Sydney could result in him being forced to travel to The Hague - "a one-way trip that could permanently distance him from Moscow and the Kremlin's halls of power".