MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. The ruling of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin will cause disastrous consequences for international law, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.
"They decided to put on trial the president <...> of a nuclear power that isn’t party to the ICC for the same reasons as the US and some other countries. It’s obvious that the directive was the harshest possible," the politician said on Telegram.
"It’s clear there’s no practical value but thanks for your thoughts. But the consequences for international law will be disastrous. This means a collapse of the foundations, the principles of law, including the postulate of the inevitability of punishment. No one now will be turning to international institutions. Everyone will be making agreements between themselves. All the foolish decisions of the UN and other organizations will be bursting at the seams. A dark decline of the entire system of international relations is coming. Trust has been exhausted," Medvedev said.
He said ICC judges shouldn’t have raised their hand against a major nuclear power.
"I’m afraid, gentlemen, everyone is answerable to God and missiles. It’s quite possible to imagine how a hypersonic Oniks fired from a Russian warship in the North Sea strikes the court building in the Hague. It can’t be shot down, I’m afraid. And the court is just a pathetic international organization, not the people of a NATO country. So, they won’t start a war. They’ll be scared. And no one will be sorry," the official said.
He urged the judges to "watch the skies closely."
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the ruling by saying Moscow doesn’t recognize ICC jurisdiction.