Russia opens criminal probe into ICC after Putin arrest warrant

MOSCOW — Russia said Monday that it had opened a criminal investigation into International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan after the court based in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin.

"The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Ahmad Khan" and several ICC judges, the Investigative Committee said, based on their "unlawful" decision to seek Putin's arrest. 

The ICC issued the arrest warrant on Putin—as well as Russia's children's rights commissioner—for the mass abduction of children from Ukraine.

Russia has not denied taking thousands of children from Ukraine since the start of what it calls a "special military operation" but said it has done so to protect them.— Agence France-Presse