MOSCOW: The Kremlin has said that the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) verdict to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin was legally “annulled” since Russia does recognize the court’s jurisdiction, media reported on Friday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media persons, “Russia, just like a number of different nations, does not recognize the jurisdiction of ICC and so from a legal perspective, the verdicts of this court are void,”.
Moscow dismisses ICC warrant against Putin
Similarly, Russian ministry for foreign affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the verdicts of the ICC “have no meaning” for Moscow. In a statement via social media, she said that Russia is not a member of the ICC and, therefore, it bears no obligations under its jurisdiction. “Moscow does not cooperate with ICC and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from it, will be legally void,” Zakharova added. Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev also took to Twitter, likening the arrest warrant of President Putin to toilet paper.
The International Criminal Court announced earlier it had issued an arrest warrant against the Russian President for the “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian kids. The chief of the Investigative Committee ordered an investigation into the ICC warrants against citizens of Russia. Investigators said in a statement that Russian Investigative Committee will make attempt to identify specific individuals from among the ICC judges who made the illegal decisions. Head of the Russian state broadcaster RT Margarita Simonyan implied that Russia could respond militarily to any attempts to capture Russia’s president.
