Mongolia ignores an international warrant for Putin's arrest, giving him a red-carpet welcome

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin received a red-carpet welcome to Mongolia on Tuesday, as the country ignored calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The trip, which concluded Tuesday night, was Putin’s first to a member nation of the International Criminal Court since it issued the warrant in March 2023. Ahead of his visit, Ukraine urged Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the European Union expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant.

The warrant put the government in a difficult position. After decades under communism with close ties to the Soviet Union, it transitioned to democracy in the 1990s and built relations with the United States, Japan and other new partners. But the landlocked country remains economically dependent on its two much larger and more powerful neighbors, Russia and China.

The ICC has accused Putin of being responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Member countries are required to detain suspects if a warrant has been issued, but Mongolia needs to maintain its ties with Russia and the court lacks a mechanism to enforce its warrants.

The United States doesn't believe any country “should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

"We understand that position that Mongolia is in, you know, sandwiched between two much larger neighbors, but we do think it’s important that they continue to support the rule of law around the world,” he told reporters in Washington.

The Russian leader was welcomed in the main square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, by an honor guard dressed in vivid red and blue uniforms styled on those of the personal guard of 13th century ruler Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.

A throng of people watched from behind barriers as Putin and Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa walked up the red-carpeted steps of the Government Palace and bowed toward a statue of Genghis Khan.

A few protesters who tried to unfurl a Ukrainian flag were taken away by police. Five others who gathered a few blocks west of the square held up an anti-Putin banner and Ukrainian flag but disbanded after hearing about the arrests.

As Putin was welcomed in Mongolia, his forces struck a military training facility and nearby hospital in Poltava, Ukraine, killing at least 50 people, the country's president said. The strike appeared to be one of the deadliest by Russian forces since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022.

The two governments signed agreements on a power plant upgrade in Ulaanbaatar and on the supply of Russian aviation fuel to Mongolia. They also agreed to carry out an environmental study of a river where Mongolia wants to build a hydroelectric plant that Russia is concerned would pollute its Lake Baikal. Putin also outlined plans to develop the rail system between the countries.

He invited the Mongolian president to a summit of the BRICS nations — which include Russia and China among others — in the Russian city of Kazan in late October. Khurelsukh accepted, according to Russian state media.

After leaving Ulaanbaatar, Putin arrived early Wednesday in Russia's major Pacific port of Vladivostok, where he is to take part in an economic forum.

On Monday, the EU said it had shared its concerns with Mongolian authorities.

“Mongolia, like all other countries, has the right to develop its international ties according to its own interests,” European Commission spokesperson Nabila Massrali said. But she added that Mongolia has been a party to the ICC since 2002, "with the legal obligations that it entails.”

Given Mongolia's dependence on Russia and China for trade, energy and security, it was hardly possible to expect the government to arrest Putin, said Sam Greene, the director of democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

“The overriding reason for this trip will have been to show that Putin can travel right now,” he said.

But, Greene added, the warrant narrows the circle of possibilities for Putin, forcing “any government that’s going to think about hosting him to consider both the domestic and the international political consequences of that in a way they wouldn’t have had to before.”

Kenneth Roth, the former longtime director of Human Rights Watch, called Putin’s trip to Mongolia “a sign of weakness,” posting on X that the Russian leader “could manage a trip only to a country with a tiny population of 3.4 million that lives in Russia’s shadow.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the trip wasn’t about “showing something to Western countries,” but rather about developing bilateral relations between two countries rooted in history and “wonderful glorious traditions.” His remarks were made to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, denounced the warrant as “illegal” in an online statement Tuesday.

Putin, on his first visit to Mongolia in five years, participated in a ceremony to mark the 85th anniversary of a joint Soviet and Mongolian victory over the Japanese army in deadly fighting over the border between then-Japan-controlled Manchuria and Mongolia.

“I am very delighted about Putin’s visit to Mongolia," said Yansanjav Demdendorj, a retired economist, citing Russia's role against Japan. “If we think of the ... battle, it’s Russians who helped free Mongolia.”

Uyanga Tsoggerel, who supports the protests, said her country is a democracy that doesn't tolerate dictatorship and accused Putin of “recklessly humiliating and shaming Mongolia in front of the world.”

Putin has made a series of overseas trips to try to counter the international isolation he faces over the invasion of Ukraine. He visited China in May, made a trip to North Korea and Vietnam in June and went to Kazhakstan in July for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

But last year, the South African government lobbied against Putin showing up in Johannesburg for the BRICS summit, which he ended up joining by video link. South Africa, an ICC member, faced criticism in 2015 when it didn't arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during a visit for an African Union summit.

Enkhgerel Seded, who studies at a university in Moscow, said that historically, countries with friendly relations don't arrest heads-of-state on official visits.

“Our country has obligations toward the international community," she said. "But ... I think in this case as well, it would not be appropriate to conduct an arrest.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a signing ceremony following the Russian-Mongolian talks at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Sofia Sandurskaya, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an event marking the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armed forces over the Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend their meeting at the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene shake hands as they pose for photos during their meeting at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, attend a ceremony near a monument to Soviet Marshal Zhukov in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on carpet front right, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, on carpet front left, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument to Soviet Marshal Zhukov in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chairman of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia Dashzegve Amarbayasgalan attend a meeting at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh shake hands as they make a statement following the Russian-Mongolian talks at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, center right, attend a welcome ceremony in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend a meeting at the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend their meeting at the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, right, attend a welcome ceremony in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend a welcome ceremony in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh shake hands as they pose for photos prior to the Russian-Mongolian talks at the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Sofia Sandurskaya, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh shake hands as they pose for photos prior to the Russian-Mongolian talks at the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh shake hands during a welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

An Aurus Senat Limousine carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at Sukhbaatar Square prior to a welcoming ceremony with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend a welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, attend a welcome ceremony in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Police and security officers prevent members of the "No War" group from holding up a Ukrainian flag during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ganbat Namjilsangarav)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend a welcome ceremony in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, walks with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, during a welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Police and security officers detain members of the "No War" group protesting the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ganbat Namjilsangarav)

Police and security officers prevent members of the "No War" group from holding up a Ukrainian flag during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ganbat Namjilsangarav)

A man walks past Sukhbaatar Square, decorated with the national flags of Mongolia and Russia, to welcome the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ganbat Namjilsangarav)

People walk in Sukhbaatar Square, decorated with the national flags of Mongolia and Russia, to welcome the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ganbat Namjilsangarav)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, walks with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, during welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Sofya Sandurskaya, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, walks with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, during welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, walks with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, left, during welcoming ceremony at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Sofya Sandurskaya, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on red carpet left, walks next to Mongolian Foreign Minister of Mongolia, Batmunkh Battsetseg upon his arrival at Ulaanbaatar's International airport Chinggis Khaan, late Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Natalia Gubernatorova, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Before he ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, David McCormick was a big name on Wall Street.

He was the CEO of the world's largest hedge fund, a world-traveled executive who was sought after for speaking engagements and prominent board positions.

His wealth and connections got him flagged by Republicans as someone who could both raise campaign cash and pay his own way for a Senate campaign.

But McCormick's Wall Street days haven't been such an asset of late. They provided grist for attacks by Republican primary rivals in McCormick's failed 2022 run for Senate and now by Democrats in his challenge to third-term Sen. Bob Casey.

Casey, in speeches and ads, hammers away at investments made by Bridgewater Associates while McCormick was CEO, including in Chinese companies that are considered part of Beijing's military and surveillance industrial complex.

“While I was fighting for union rights and fighting for working families in Pennsylvania, he was making a lot of money investing in China," Casey recently told a union crowd at a Teamsters hall in suburban Harrisburg. "He not only invested in Chinese companies, he invested in companies that built the Chinese military."

McCormick declined an interview request.

The need to fend off accusations that he profited at America’s expense comes at an unfortunate time for McCormick as China's relationship with Washington has grown increasingly tense.

But Bridgewater was hardly alone.

U.S. investment in Chinese companies surged while McCormick was Bridgewater’s CEO as hedge funds, institutional investors and fund managers plunged money into those same companies.

Some still do, according to a congressional report released this year after both the Trump and Biden administrations tried to block American investment in what they viewed as China's military and surveillance apparatus.

America's political community soured on China as early as 2016, but the U.S. financial sector “plowed right through that,” said Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who served on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The economic ties extend beyond Wall Street. Semiconductor companies, farmers, tech and others in manufacturing rely on China for customers or components, Scissors said.

As Bridgewater’s CEO in 2019, McCormick described China as America’s “most defining bilateral relationship of our time,” even as calls began in Washington to block American investments in Chinese companies that could pose a threat to U.S. security.

As a candidate, McCormick has described China as an “existential” threat to the United States. He called for the federal government to develop a comprehensive strategy for America to outperform China economically and technologically, and said his experience with China means he can go “toe to toe” with its government on trade issues.

But McCormick also defends himself, both minimizing Bridgewater’s investments in China, saying it was 2% of the company’s assets, and describing investment in China as “unavoidable” because of client expectations and the rapid growth of that country's economy.

In a book he published last year, he wrote: “As is, U.S. dollars finance Communist China’s most egregious acts and ambitions.”

While campaigning, McCormick barely talks about his time at the hedge fund. If he mentions it at all, he tells audiences he ran a “financial firm” or an “investment firm.”

Instead, he dwells on other entries on his resume. Those include playing football and wrestling in high school, graduating from the U.S. military academy at West Point and serving with the Army in the first Gulf War, where he won a Bronze Star.

But if he is not talking up his Wall Street days, Wall Street does not seem to care. In his two campaigns for Senate, super political action committees that support McCormick have raised tens of millions of dollars and counting from the finance world.

McCormick, 59, earned a Ph.D from Princeton University, ran the online auction house FreeMarkets Inc., which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom, and served in senior positions in President George W. Bush’s administration.

There, he likes to say, he gained a reputation as a tough negotiator with the Chinese when tasked with Commerce Department policy over export controls of sensitive technologies.

When Bridgewater Associates hired McCormick in 2009 to be president, its founder, Ray Dalio, had a reputation for being bullish on China.

Today, Bridgewater is as prominent as any foreign investment firm in China.

Regulatory disclosures in China show that it has at least 10 billion renminbi — or at least $1.4 billion, and maybe much more — invested in Chinese assets there, said Harry Handley, a senior associate at Z-Ben Advisors, a financial advisory firm based in Shanghai.

That is the most of any foreign firm, Handley said.

McCormick, who was an executive at Bridgewater for 12 years, joined the company when investment banks, venture capital firms and hedge funds were fueling an investment boom in a growing Chinese economy.

“The Chinese economy was doing well for a long time and there was money to be made there,” said Greg Brown, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of finance who researches hedge funds.

McCormick spent his last five years at Bridgewater as co-CEO or CEO, and those were big years for investing in China. That is when Chinese regulators relaxed restrictions over foreign investment in stocks and bonds, unleashing several years of particularly heavy investment, Brown and others say.

Bridgewater forged a reputation among foreign firms as an aggressive investor in Chinese companies — "over the past few years they’ve kind of dominated among the global firms in China," Handley said — and reputedly handled money for the Chinese government.

In early 2022, McCormick left Bridgewater to run for Senate in Pennsylvania in a seven-way GOP primary.

Bridgewater's connections with China followed him.

In one attack by a Republican primary rival, a video by Mehmet Oz 's campaign showed “finance bros” Chad and Tad at a bar when Tad asks Chad, “Do you think saying ‘I invest in China’ is a good pickup line?” Chad responds, “Investing in foreign adversaries always plays!”

At a rally days before the 2022 primary, former President Donald Trump, aiming to help Oz, his endorsed candidate, derided McCormick as having been with a company that “managed money for communist China."

McCormick lost narrowly to Oz.

This summer, Casey's campaign launched two ads that ran in Pennsylvania’s major TV markets attacking McCormick over Bridgewater's investments in companies tied to China’s military.

“Dave McCormick sold us out to make a fortune,” say hard-hatted speakers in one ad. “That’s the real Dave McCormick.”

McCormick has tried to tie Casey to China, saying Casey had money invested in Chinese companies through mutual funds and that the Casey-supported clean-energy policies of the Biden administration are making the U.S. more reliant on Chinese lithium batteries and solar panels.

Meanwhile, each candidate is trying to show that he is the tougher one on China. That has put the contrast between McCormick the CEO and McCormick the candidate into sharp relief, with McCormick explicitly calling for an end to U.S. investment in technologies in China that are critical to national security or tied to its military.

“McCormick has changed his tune because he’s a political type,” Scissors said. “If he was in the business community, he’d still be pushing for relations with China. Because that’s what they do.”

Follow Marc Levy at https://x.com/timelywriter.

This combination of photos taken in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., left, at a campaign event, Sept. 13, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, and David McCormick, the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, at a campaign event, April 25, 2024, in Harrisburg. (AP Photo)