RT.com
17 Mar 2023, 23:44 GMT+10
Russia is one of many countries that do not recognize the Hague-based institution
The Pre-trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants on Friday for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for children's rights.
The Hague-based tribunal is not recognized by Moscow, and the move has no legal validity in Russia. The US also does not recognize the body, which has been accused of being Eurocentric and biased towards the West.
The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately dismissed the announcement. "The decisions of the International Criminal Court do not matter to our country, including from a legal point of view," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
"We consider the very premise outrageous and unacceptable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Russia, like many other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. Accordingly, any of its pronouncements are null and void to the Russian Federation from the legal standpoint."
Senator Andrey Klishas, a senior member of the ruling United Russia party, called the announcement "absurd," saying the ICC is putting itself on the road to self-destruction.
The ICC alleged that Putin and Lvova-Belova engaged in the "unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
Thousands of residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson - four regions that overwhelmingly voted to join Russia last September - have been evacuated to the interior of Russia due the deliberate shelling of civilians by Ukrainian forces, often using NATO-supplied weapons.
The court claims that Putin and Lvova-Belova bear individual and command responsibility for the alleged crime under several articles of its establishing treaty, the Rome Statute. As Zakharova noted, however, Russia never ratified the statute and is not under the ICC's jurisdiction.
Neither is the US, which has championed Ukraine's claims of Russian "war crimes." The US Congress adopted a law in 2002 prohibiting any Americans from cooperating with the ICC, or extradition of US citizens for trial there. The American Service-Members' Protection Act (also known as The Hague Invasion Act), also authorized "all means necessary and appropriate" to release any detained Americans - or their allies - from the Hague.
The ICC was modeled after the ad-hoc tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which relied on NATO countries to fund its investigations and trials, and enforce its warrants and verdicts.
(RT.com)
Get a daily dose of Breaking Property News news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Breaking Property News.
More InformationNEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks diverged on Wednesday for the second day in a row. The Standard and Poor's 500 hit a new all-time...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: The U.S. dollar continues to lose ground, weighed down by growing concerns over Washington's fiscal outlook...
KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan, long associated with war and instability, is quietly trying to rebrand itself as a destination for...
SANTA CLARA, California: Executives at Nvidia have quietly been cashing in on the AI frenzy. According to a report by the Financial...
NEW YORK, New York - Global stock indices closed with divergent performances on Tuesday, as investors weighed corporate earnings, central...
TORONTO, Canada: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced late on June 29 that trade negotiations with the U.S. have recommenced...
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 30 (ANI): The top 7 cities recorded around 1,89,570 units sold between January and June 2025 --...
BERLIN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Germany's housing market showed strong signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2025, with residential...
SEOUL, June 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's industrial output fell for the second successive month due to negative effects of U.S. tariffs...
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The latest sign of trouble in the U.S. housing market: A pickup in home purchase agreements falling through before...
Valencia Park father ordered to stand trial in death of baby daughter
Two arrested in alleged Chinese spy scheme with ties to San Diego