ST. PETERSBURG, May 12. /TASS/. The warrant for arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), constitutes a provocation against Russia, Serbian lawyer Goran Petronijevic said at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Friday. Petronijevic is a legal adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and president of the Center for the Restoration of International Law.

"This is a political act. It is not a legal act. It is a provocation against Russia," Petronijevic said. He added that the ICC’s decision put heavy pressure on the states that were signatories to the Rome Statute and recognized that institution on their territory. According to the Serbian lawyer, many countries might soon begin to revise their decisions to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. He stressed that the court "is losing its raison d'·tre (reason for being) and becoming an instrument of a unipolar world and a hostage of neoliberal globalism."

On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and presidential commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of allegedly "illegally deporting" Ukrainian children. Commenting on this decision, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov recalled that Moscow did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the decisions of that court were of no importance for Russia.