I have read several articles about Russian President Vladimir Putin using a visit to Russia’s small, once-mighty, land-locked neighbor, Mongolia, to poke the International Criminal Court (“ICC”). Mongolia is an ICC member, but being a country of 3,000,000 people which is sandwiched between and largely dependent on Russia and China, it is hardly in a position to do what the ICC cannot, even if it were so inclined. One headline from CEPA caught my attention: Putin Uses Mongolia to Mock the ICC. My take: Wholly gratuitous move by Russia. The ICC is more than capable of making a mockery of itself without any acts of diplomatic aggression from the always self-aware Russian government.

(Aside: Many foreign policy commentators who are into concern trolling about the “global south’s” views of supporting Israel are oddly unconcerned about how the “global south” may view big, wealthy, powerful countries trying to pressure Mongolia into picking a fight with one of the two nuclear powers it shares a border with.)