Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Mongolia, where he was greeted Tuesday with a red carpet welcome in defiance of an international arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The trip is Mr. Putin’s first to a member nation of the International Criminal Court since it issued the warrant in March 2023, citing alleged crimes including the deportation of Ukrainian children. Before his visit, Ukraine had asked Mongolia to execute the warrant and turn the Russian president over to court authorities in The Hague, Netherlands.

Instead, Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg and an honor guard welcomed Mr. Putin on a red carpet as he stepped off his plane in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Later, Mr. Putin and Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa walked through the city’s Ghehzhiz Khan Square past another honor guard and mounted cavalry.

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Mr. Putin also held talks with Parliament Speaker Dashzegviin Amarbayasgalan and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene.

“I am very pleased to be in Mongolia, which is friendly to us, and together with the Mongolian people to celebrate a landmark event — our common victories on the Khalkhin-Gol River,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Amarbayasgalan, the Russian state-run news agency TASS reported.

Khalkhin-Gol, also known as Nomonhan, was the site of a Soviet victory over Japanese troops in eastern Mongolia in the run-up to World War II in 1939.

“Outside a small number of Western countries, [Mr. Putin] can pretty much go anywhere,” said an East Asia-based Russian academic who spoke to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity. “The majority of countries in the world don’t care about the war in Ukraine.”

“I think he wants to show he can travel with no problems with the ICC warrants, he wants to show that he is quite OK,” said another Russian, who is familiar with Moscow’s trade activities in East Asia. “This is part of a propaganda trend to make Russian people proud of their president.”

Moscow and Ulaanbaatar have long had amicable political and economic relations, and Mongolia relies heavily on Russia for energy. According to The Associated Press, the two governments agreed on upgrades to a power plant in Ulaanbaatar and the continued supply of Russian aviation fuel. Plans for rail development were also discussed.

One issue likely discussed behind closed doors is the future of the long-proposed “Power of Siberia 2” natural-gas pipeline from eastern Russia to China.

The multi-billion dollar Power of Siberia 1 opened between China and Russia in 2017. The second project, through Mongolia, has been in planning since 2006 but was not mentioned in Ulaanbaatar’s long-term development plans, revealed on Aug. 19.

According to Reuters in Moscow, Mr. Putin said just before his trip that talks on the project were proceeding.

It is unclear whether pricing or geopolitical concerns in China or Mongolia have held up the project. If initiated, it would offer Moscow a massive long-term foreign exchange windfall and help offset the disappearance of European energy purchases resulting from the outbreak of the war with Ukraine.

However, the pipeline would increase Moscow’s reliance upon Beijing.

That reliance — and the advantage China is taking of Russia’s heavily sanctioned economy — was raised by one of Russia’s most popular media personalities, nationalist Vladimir Solovyov, just before Mr. Putin’s trip.

“Is China our motherland now?” Mr. Solovyov asked on the TV chat show he has hosted since 2012, as he lamented Chinese imports. “Some saw we are over-saturated with Chinese goods.”

“The sovereignty of our economy is very important,” responded one of Mr. Solovyov’s guests, Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov. “We should be overjoyed that the Chinese didn’t spread everything in our territory — which they are capable of — because they are developing so fast and we are not developing.”

Mr. Solovyov wondered aloud whether China could ship goods, such as cars and drone parts, to Russia via Mongolia if Beijing chose to abide by international sanctions against Mr. Putin and Moscow.

Hong Kong media reported last month that the proposed pipeline could offer Russia increased influence in Mongolia — or Ulaanbaatar could be playing Moscow and Beijing against one another.

One shadowy area of geopolitics is low-key tensions between Beijing and Moscow. Though the two countries publicly profess their partnership, China has declined to supply Russia with arms to support its invasion of Ukraine,

Moreover, in the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians have increasingly feared that China — with its surging economy and massive population — could encroach upon the underpopulated, underdeveloped Russian Far East. The vast, underpopulated landmass of Mongolia is another area of under-the-radar geopolitical and historical contention.

“Mongolia cannot afford to be in trouble with Russia: It is squeezed between Russia and China, which has swallowed two-thirds of historical Mongolia,” said Mr. Solovyov. “It can’t afford to have bad relations with Russia, which has historically been a major protector against China and Japan. Nobody else will help it.”