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US Top Diplomat Blinken Urges All ICC Members to Comply with Putin Arrest Warrant

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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US Top Diplomat Blinken Urges All ICC Members to Comply with Putin Arrest Warrant

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 22, 2023. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged all members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to comply with an arrest warrant that the court issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, the court accused Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The legal move will obligate the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

"I think anyone who's a party to the court and has obligations should fulfill their obligations," Blinken said when asked by US senator Lindsey Graham at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, if he would encourage European allies to "turn over" Putin.

Although the United States is not a party to the ICC, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Putin has clearly committed war crimes, adding that the ICC warrant was justified.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its one-year invasion of its neighbor and the Kremlin branded the court decision as "null and void".

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, although Kyiv granted the court jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory. The tribunal has no police force of its own and relies on member states to make arrests.

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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China, AFP reported.
"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans.
It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."
The GEC's leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a "sharp contraction" in freedom of speech around the world.