MAPUTO /Mozambique/, May 31. /TASS/. The sanctions imposed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will not interfere with the scheduled BRICS events in South Africa chaired by that country, as the ICC’s rulings are not legally binding for Russia and most other countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at a press conference after his talks in Mozambique.

"The rulings of the so-called International Criminal Court do not have any legal force for us as well as for a vast majority of other countries," he stated.

The Russian foreign minister invited the doubters to ask the US for explanations, reminding those who had forgotten that "when the ICC suddenly decided to investigate American crimes in Afghanistan, the US president threatened to sanction anyone who dared to do such a thing."

"In other words, the Americans themselves, whose opinion so many like to refer to, do not care one bit about that institution," Lavrov concluded. "And should anybody, in particular anyone who can speak English fluently, prefer to exploit this tool against Russia, I will once again refer to the inadmissibility of those rules which the West employs in an attempt to resolve international issues exclusively to suit its own interests, the same way colonial states used to do, namely, to live at the expense of others.".