MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Russia does not recognize arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and views them as absurd, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"We do not recognize the jurisdiction of that court and we are not members of the corresponding statute. Correspondingly, we do not recognize these warrants," Peskov said.

"We consider them as quite absurd as the previous two warrants that related to the head of state and the children’s ombudswoman," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

On June 25, a pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russia’s former Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Gerasimov in the context of the situation in Ukraine.

According to the court, Shoigu and Gerasimov are "allegedly responsible" for directing attacks at facilities in Ukraine.

On March 17, 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of alleged unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.

International Criminal Court

The ICC was established by the Rome Statute of 1998. There are currently 123 countries participating in the treaty. The court is based in The Hague but it has branches in countries where it is conducting investigations.

Russia signed the Rome Statute, which it helped develop, on September 13, 2000, but did not ratify it. On November 16, 2016, Russian President Putin signed an executive order that said the country would not become a party to the ICC. As the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "the ICC has failed to live up to expectations and has not become a truly independent body of international justice."