Russian president Vladimir Putin's status as an international pariah has been cemented after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday. The court accused him of overseeing the war crime of unlawfully abducting and deporting children from Ukraine to Russia. Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, immediately rejected the court's findings, claiming Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The arrest warrant means that Putin will no longer be able to travel to 123 countries which signed the statute that created the court. He runs the risk of arrest in any of these countries, as they are obliged to follow through with the arrest warrant. Most governments also abide by the international legal principle that heads of state have immunity from other courts, making it unclear how many would be willing to arrest the president of a nuclear-armed and oil-rich power.

The ICC accuses Putin and his former "Commissioner