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EP’s resolution on 'tribunal' for Ukraine has no legal force — Russian legislator

Leonid Slutsky stressed that, in fact, the European Parliament was calling on the European Union to engage in robbery

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. The chairman of the State Duma’s committee on international affairs, Leonid Slutsky, has told TASS that the European Parliament’s resolution on the creation of a "tribunal" for Ukraine is devoid of both legal authority and meaning.

"The sole tribunal that may be possible for Ukraine is a tribunal for Nazi criminals, and it will certainly take place. ‘Enlightened’ Europe has once again tried to justify the illegal seizure of Russian assets. This ‘resolution’ is not only not legally valid. It is devoid of common sense," Slutsky said.

He stressed that, in fact, the European Parliament was calling on the European Union to engage in robbery.

"That's how one can briefly describe the EP’s resolution on the creation of a special ‘tribunal’ for Ukraine. In it, the European legislators called for holding the Russian leadership accountable, as well as for discussing the legal opportunities for using Russian assets to pay compensations to Kiev for ‘violations of international law’," he summed up.

Earlier, the European Parliament called on the EU "in close cooperation with Ukraine and the international community to push for the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russia’s political and military leadership and its allies," according to a press release following the vote (472 voted in favor of the resolution, 19 opposed it, 33 abstained). The resolution also calls for such a tribunal to be empowered to investigate the leadership of Belarus.

The MEPs recommended the European Commission, the European Council and the EU states "to engage in discussion on the legal possibility of using sovereign assets of the Russian state as reparations for the violations of international law by Russia in Ukraine, including potentially by denying such assets the protections of sovereign immunity or limiting such protections owing to the gross nature of these violations."

The European Parliament’s resolutions have no legal force and are advisory in nature, but they are widely used in the media and political environment of the EU to promote and disseminate specific political viewpoints.

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Foreign policy Leonid Slutsky

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