Moscow has criticized the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine as being of no consequence.
In a statement released on Friday, the Hague-based court said the order was issued due to Putin’s alleged involvement in the forcible removal and transfer of minors from the seized territories of Ukraine to Russia.
For having committed the acts “directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to properly exercise control over his civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts,” the statement continued, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the kidnappings.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which lacks the authority to implement its own warrants, has issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian president’s office commissioner for children’s rights, based on comparable claims.
The ICC’s action was rejected as invalid by Russia, which has denied committing atrocities since its invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.
After the announcement, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, posted on her Telegram channel, “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no value for our country, even from a legal point of view.
Russia “bears no duties under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court” because it is not a party to it.
The fact that Russia has not accepted the Rome Statute, however, was deemed “totally irrelevant” by ICC President Piotr Hofmanski to Al Jazeera.
The court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state that has recognized its jurisdiction, according to the ICC law, which has 123 state parties, or two-thirds of the whole international community, he said.
Hofmanski said “43 states have brought the issue in Ukraine to the court, which means they have legally activated our jurisdiction”.
