President of the U.S.A Joe Biden on Friday, March 17, said that Vladimir Putin “clearly committed war crimes”, and extradition International Criminal Court in The Hague a warrant for his arrest was acquitted. “However, the problem is that this is not recognized all over the world, including ours. But I think it’s a very strong statement,” Reuters quoted Biden as saying.
Decisions of the International Criminal Court are binding on countries that have signed the international treaty that established it in 1998 – the Rome Statute. We are talking about 123 states, including all countries of Europe, South America, as well as Tajikistan, South Africa, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic and Nigeria. However, the United States is not among them – nor is Russia.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, speaking on CNN that evening, declined to answer the question of whether Putin would be arrested under an ICC warrant if he arrived in the United States. Kirby said he considered such a visit by the Russian president “unlikely” anyway.
Putin is suspected of deporting children
That International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Putin, was reported on the ICC website on Friday, March 17. The court suspects the President of Russia of war crimes, in particular, the forcible deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. There are sufficient grounds to believe that Putin bears personal criminal responsibility for these crimes – directly, together with other persons or through other persons – and also for the fact that he “did not exercise proper control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed these acts or admitted them and which were under his effective authority and control,” the statement said.
A similar arrest warrant was issued against Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation. The ICC ruling states that the court in The Hague “has sufficient grounds to believe that she bears individual criminal responsibility for the above crimes, since she committed these acts directly, jointly with other persons and / or through other persons.”
Decision of the International Criminal Court welcomed in Brussels and Kyiv. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an evening video message to citizens called the warrant for the arrest of Putin “a historic decision, from which historical responsibility will begin”. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General António Guterres said that the president of the Russian Federation for him is not persona non grataand that he remains willing to talk to Putin on important issues.
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov called the issuance of an ICC warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin outrageous, and the decision itself was insignificant.
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