loading…
President Vladimir Putin’s allies have proposed banning the ICC in Russia. Photos/Illustrations
MOSCOW – Speaker of the parliament Russia proposing a ban on activities International Criminal Court (ICC) after that court issued an arrest warrant for the President Vladimir Putin . The ICC accuses Putin of having committed war crimes.
Putin’s ally Vyacheslav Volodin said Russian laws should be changed to outlaw any ICC activity in the country and punish anyone who provides assistance and support to the ICC.
“It is necessary to draw up amendments to the law prohibiting the activities of the ICC on the territory of our country,” Volodin said in a post on Telegram as quoted by Reuters, Saturday (25/3/2023).
Volodin said that the United States (US) had created a law to prevent its citizens from being tried by The Hague courts and Russia should continue that work.
Any aid or support for the ICC in Russia, he said, must be punished under the law.
The ICC earlier this month issued arrest warrants accusing Putin of war crimes by illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there are reasonable reasons to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.
Russian officials have warned that any attempt to arrest Putin, Russia’s most important leader since the last days of 1999, would be tantamount to declaring war on the world’s largest nuclear power.
In its first warrant for Ukraine, the ICC called for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of the illegal deportation of children and the illegal transfer of persons from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation since February 24, 2022.
