World leaders continue to discuss the decision of the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, due to the events surrounding Ukraine. At the same time, opinions differ: while some consider the court's position to be justified, while others fear that it will lead to a nuclear war, others are puzzling over how they should now conduct events with the participation of the Russian leader.
A meeting was held in London on Monday to support the efforts of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was attended by high-ranking representatives of about 40 countries (including the Minister of Justice of Ukraine, which is not a member of the ICC, Denys Malyusyka, and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin). During the event, British Minister of Justice Dominic Raab announced his readiness to allocate significant additional funds to the ICC and called on other countries to follow the example of Great Britain.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Ahmad Khan, who addressed the participants of the meeting, sent a petition to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, meanwhile, urged those present not to look for a reason to "celebrate or pat each other on the back."
"Actually, this is a very sad, gloomy event: for the first time in the history of the judges of the International Criminal Court, they considered it necessary to issue warrants for the arrest of the leader and high-ranking statesman of one of the countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council," Karim Ahmad Khan explained his opinion.
He called the conflict over Ukraine a "moment of awakening" for the ICC system, saying: "We need to have collective resilience to do justice. If we don't cling to the law now, we might not have anything to cling to in the future."
Of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, only Great Britain and France have ratified the Rome Statute, on the basis of which the ICC operates. Russia, China and the USA are not member states of this court and, accordingly, do not recognize its decision (unlike 123 countries of the world).
China's Foreign Ministry on Monday urged the ICC to "respect the judicial and jurisdictional immunities enjoyed by heads of state in accordance with international law" and "avoid politicization and double standards."
US President Joe Biden called the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of his Russian colleague "justified". "This court is not recognized by us. But I think he took a very strong position," said the head of the White House. In response, the Russian Embassy in Washington recalled how the American authorities opposed the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes of the American armed forces in Afghanistan, and characterized the current position of the United States as "lethargic schizophrenia", an attempt "to harm Russia as much as possible."
John Bolton, the former assistant to the US president for national security, also criticized the court's decision, who said in an interview with the British TV channel Sky News that this step will not lead to the arrest of the Russian president, but it may disrupt the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. "This (the Ministry of Internal Affairs — ed. ) is an extremely dangerous institution, and I think that its actions can potentially prevent the achievement of a diplomatic solution in Ukraine," he warned. the probability that he will agree to them?
Serbian President Oleksandr Vucic also stated that the decision of the International Court of Justice could negatively affect the settlement of the conflict around Ukraine. "This decision, not to mention the legal aspects, will lead to bad political consequences, consequences for people's lives. It indicates a great reluctance to talk about peace and truce, about saving human lives," he said. According to him, by accusing Vladimir Putin of "the most serious war crimes", Western countries are cutting off the paths for negotiations with him.
"I am not sure that this (arrest warrant. — ed.) was a wise, calculated decision," Oleksandr Vuchich summed up. Serbia is a member country of the ISS.
The Prime Minister of Cambodia, which also recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC, Hun Sen, also expressed concern that "Putin's arrest warrant will complicate efforts to find a peaceful solution in Ukraine." "How can Putin negotiate peace when the other side threatens him with arrest?" — the politician stated in his Telegram channel. Recalling that "President Putin is the leader of a nuclear power with thousands of nuclear weapons," Hun Sen warned that an attempt to arrest the Russian leader could be a global disaster.
A number of other countries that have recognized the jurisdiction of the ICC or are about to do so, such as Armenia, have been put in a difficult position by the court's decision: they now need to take this factor into account before organizing events with the participation of the Russian president. We are talking, in particular, about South Africa, whose authorities intend to invite Vladimir Putin to the BRICS summit in August. Commenting on the situation, the official representative of the President of South Africa, Victor Magwenya, was cautious. According to him, the authorities do not intend to "speculate" about what will happen if the President of the Russian Federation accepts this invitation. "We have taken into account the report on the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of President Putin by the International Criminal Court," he said (quote from TARS). As a government, we are aware of our obligations (before the ISS. — ed.). However, in the time remaining until the summit (BRICS.—ed.), we will continue to maintain contacts with various stakeholders regarding the summit and related issues."
The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, was asked today about Vladimir Putin's personal attitude to the news from The Hague. "We treat it calmly, record everything carefully and continue working. The president continues to work, most importantly, - he answered and added: - We observe so many openly hostile manifestations of both our country and our president in the world that, of course, we record it, but if each of these hostile manifestations is accepted close to the heart, probably nothing good will happen."
The Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation still took the situation to heart: on March 20, it was announced that the agency had initiated a criminal case against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aytala, and Sergio Gerardo Ugal.
"The criminal prosecution is deliberately illegal, as there are no grounds for bringing (Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova) to criminal responsibility," the SC of the Russian Federation declared. It will be recalled that the International Criminal Court accused the President of Russia and the Commissioner for Children's Rights of facilitating the "illegal removal of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation."
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