Hague-based court has no authority in Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says
Moscow has no obligation to recognize “arrest warrant” for President Vladimir Putin announced by the International Criminal Court on Friday, Kremlinsman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We consider the very premise to be outrageous and unacceptable,” Peskov told reporters when asked about the warrant for alleged war crimes. “Russia, like many other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. Accordingly, the Russian Federation considers each of its statements to be legally null and void.
The ICC published on Friday a “arrest warrant” for Putin and the Russian Ombudsman for Children Maria Lvova-Belova, to accuse them of “illegal transfer” children from Ukraine to Russia. They claim that Putin and Lvova-Belova bear both individual and command responsibility for the alleged war crime.
Russian authorities have evacuated thousands of residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson – four regions that voted overwhelmingly to join Russia last September – to the interior, due to the deliberate shelling of civilians by the Ukrainian forces, often using weapons provided by NATO.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine have ratified the Rome Statute which established the ICC. The United States, which has subscribed to the courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda on which the ICC was based, passed legislation authorizing a military invasion of the Netherlands if ever an American is delayed by the court.
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