On Aug. 14, the Russian president is planning to
visit what he considers his new fiefdom: the Crimean peninsula. But, to
Ukraine’s relief, Crimea’s annexation in March was not recognized by the
international community.
In fact, the United Nations General Assembly
resolution approved on March 27 clearly called on “all states,
international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any
alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of
Sevastopol…and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be
interpreted as recognizing any such altered status.”
Thus, from the point of view of international law (and
in this case, most importantly – from our point of view), Putin is coming to
Ukraine. And he’s not asking for Kyiv’s permission.
This means that as soon as he sets foot on Crimean
soil, Ukrainian law enforcers will have grounds to start a criminal case
against foreign citizen Putin for illegally crossing the Ukrainian
border.
According to Article 331 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, a
crime like that is punishable by anything from a fine of 50 minimum incomes (Hr
30,450 at the moment), to arrest for up to six months, to three years in
prison. The prison term goes up to five years if there are aggravating circumstances
involved, and there certainly are in this case.
Now, the general prosecutor will have every reason to
state in court that the crime was grave, considering that it was conducted by a
group of individuals (yes, Putin’s entourage is also coming); was premeditated
(spokesman Dmitri Peskov announced on Aug. 11 that the trip was planned, i.e.
premeditated) and with weapons involved (thank you, Putin’s guard).
It can get even more interesting than that.
As soon as Ukraine opens a criminal case on the illegal
border crossing, Ukraine has every legal right to request Interpol’s assistance
to search and arrest Russian citizen No. 1.
What happens afterwards does not depend much on
Ukraine. Interpol can turn down this request, or not. In that case, Putin, from
the point of view of international law, will stand in the same line as drug
barons, serial killers and international terrorists. But in any case,
Ukrainians will have done what they could to bring suspect Putin to justice.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on Aug. 12 that
Ukrainian sanctions against Russia “are an issue of national dignity.” What can
be more dignifying than taking legal action against a suspect, who is
responsible for loss of thousands of lives?
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]
