People are wondering if Russian President Vladimir Putin could be arrested if he sets foot on US soil, ahead of Friday's Alaska meeting with Donald Trump.

In August 2025, as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to meet in Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine, speculation swirled online about whether Trump could or should arrest the Russian president at the meeting on a warrant from the International Criminal Court that accused Putin of carrying out war crimes.

We won’t be seeing Putin in handcuffs after his visit to speak with Trump tomorrow, but in dozens of other countries, he could be arrested. When Putin visited Mongolia in late 2024, the country didn’t comply with the arrest orders – claiming its hands were ‘tied’.