The Kremlin criticized this Friday (17) the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and adolescents to Russian territory since the beginning of the war between the two countries.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. Moscow was a signatory to the founding of the court in 2000, but withdrew its support for it in 2016, on the understanding that “the court has not lived up to the hopes placed on it”.
That move came days after the ICC ruled Russia’s 2014 takeover of the Crimean peninsula by Russia was an occupation.
“We consider the very wording of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like many other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and therefore any such decisions are null and void for Russia in terms of law,” Peskov said on Friday.
The ICC issued the arrest warrant against Putin as “allegedly responsible” for illegally deporting and transporting Ukrainian minors from occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia, a war crime under the court’s treaty, the Rome Statute.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber also issued a second arrest warrant against Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, on the same charge.
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