SOCHI, March 22. /TASS/. International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan is merely carrying out an agenda that is set by Western countries, which in turn have prohibited the ICC from investigating crimes committed by NATO member states, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"Currently, the International Criminal Court is headed by a prosecutor who is a naturalized Anglo-Saxon, and, let me put it this way, who, as we have all seen, is surely just following orders from his handlers, who have forbidden the institution to investigate crimes committed by NATO member states, but rather unleash it to dig up spurious pretexts, and non-existent facts, so as to advance the agenda of the so-called collective West," Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed.

The Russian foreign minister emphasized that such behavior on the part of Washington is unacceptable to all, including most of its allies, and nothing good will come of it.

"It is impossible to claim to be exceptional when you violate international law left and right, when you break rules that you yourselves have written and when you constantly meddle in every case in every corner of the world under pretexts that are highly murky, with the exception of the desire to dominate everywhere, to the detriment of the huge accumulation of domestic problems within the United States itself, which somebody still has to deal with," the minister added.

On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of the "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children. Commenting on the decision, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Moscow did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the decisions of the ICC had no authority for Russia whatsoever, while any potential arrest warrants would be legally void.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established by the Rome Statute in 1998. It is not part of the United Nations and is accountable only to those countries that have ratified the statute. Those countries that are not parties to the statute include Russia (signed, but did not ratify), the United States (signed, but then revoked its signature), and China (did not sign). President Putin signed an executive order in 2016 stating that Russia would not become an ICC member. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the court has not lived up to expectations and failed to become a truly independent organization for international justice.