On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of deporting children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, which, according to the court, constitutes a war crime.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the document “legally worthless.”
“Decisions of the International Criminal Court have no value for our country, in particular from a legal point of view,” Zakharova wrote in a Telegram post.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and doesn’t bear obligations under it. Russia doesn’t cooperate with this body, and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming out of the International Court of Justice will be legally worthless and void for us.”
Deputy head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, made a rather discourteous comment:
“No need to explain how this (piece) paper should be used,” Medvedev said, adding a toilet paper roll emoji to his Twitter post.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that this decision is “legally null and void” for the Russian Federation, as Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
“We consider the very wording of the question outrageous and unacceptable,” Peskov said.
Russia’s Children’s Ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, also made a statement.
“It’s great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country,” said Lvova-Belova, for whose arrest the ICC also issued a warrant.
