Poking a bear on the nose is not advisable.

Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador knows this. The new president of Estados Unidos Mexicanos will be inaugurated in October. It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be one of those attending. The problem is that Tsar Vladimir has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, to which Mexico belongs. Mexico has been asked by the Ukrainian government to arrest Tsar Vladimir in October if he shows up.

Imagine the conversation that took place.

AIDE TO PRESIDENT OBRADOR: “Senor Presidente, I have a request marked as urgent from the Government of Presidente Zelensky, in Ukraine.”

PRESIDENT OBRADOR : “Oh? What does he want?’

AIDE: “He wishes that, at the October inauguration, we arrest Russian President Putin, and bring him to trial before the International Criminal Court.”

OBRADOR: “Dios mio! Is he a complete lunatic? We can’t insult Russia in that way! We would be crushed like an insect by them! Tell them no!”

Mexico’s official response certainly supports that conversation, even if it is hypothetical.

On Thursday, the Mexican president rejected a request by the Ukrainian government to arrest Vladimir Putin if he defies a warrant of arrest issued internationally and attends Mexico’s inauguration for the next president.

At a regular press conference, President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador said to reporters: “We can’t.”

It’s not our decision.

Ukraine requested that Mexico arrest Putin in case he attends President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration ceremony on Oct. 1. In a statement dated August 7, the Ukrainian embassy in Mexico referred to an arrest warrant from the U.N. International Criminal Court.

The UN’s ICC does not have any operatives who can arrest people. Instead, they rely on this: the member nations are supposed to arrest anyone with a warrant who enters their territory and then deliver them to trial.

Ukraine still believes that Mexico will arrest the Russian president.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy stated that it hoped the Mexican government was aware of Vladimir Putin’s status as a war criminal with an arrest warrant. It claimed that Putin is suspected to have ordered the kidnapping and transport of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The statement expressed confidence in the Mexican government’s compliance.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin last year. It accused him of war crimes, for illegally deporting children from Ukraine to Moscow following its invasion of neighboring Europe in early 2022.

Let’s be clear: Mexico will never arrest Vladimir Putin. Mexico is one of those bears that you don’t want to poke. Mexico is much smaller than Russia, as Kamala Harris would say. Mexico, whether it is a signatory to ICC or not, has nothing to gain from this other than provoking the ire of a larger and more powerful nation.

As we want the American government to put the American people’s interests first, Mexico’s government should do the same. Mexico and its citizens will lose a great deal by antagonizing Russia. Mexico’s decision is the right one, as annoying as Tsar Vladimir is, and how entertaining it might be to watch him in an 8×10-inch cell waiting for trial.