MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. The French Foreign Ministry’s statements about the beginning of work with the European and Ukrainian partners for creating a special tribunal for investigating Russia’s actions in Ukraine have no legal basis; this idea has a rather political dimension, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said on Thursday.
"The French Foreign Ministry’s statements to the effect work has begun on creating an international tribunal for Ukraine have no legal basis and are rather political. There is no legitimate basis for the creation of an ad hoc tribunal. Implementing such an initiative will be impossible without trampling international law underfoot," Slutsky told the media.
In his opinion, such statements cater to "the collective West’s political guideline for the further demonization of Russia and the justification of its own policy of double standards."
"Preventing the truth about the true background of the Ukrainian crisis from reaching the European and American audiences is a matter of survival for today's Western politicians in power. Otherwise, their own voters will oust them," Slutsky explained.
He pointed out that if an international tribunal is to be created in earnest, "there should be Ukrainian war criminals and their patrons from Washington in the dock."
"The United States and its NATO allies since the Second World War have bombed the territories of more than 20 sovereign states, interfering in their state system and their sovereignty. This is what should be condemned at last. Then there will be far fewer causes for the conflicts like the one in Ukraine," he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, suggested the creation of a special fund of the frozen 300-billion-euro assets of Russia’s Central Bank and 19 billion euros of private assets to invest these funds under the EU management and to use the profits for compensatory payments to Ukraine. In order to legalize the expropriation of Russian assets by the EC she called for creating an international anti-Russian court and securing UN support for its establishment.