ST. PETERSBURG, June 27. /TASS/. Failure to recognize that countries and their officials have immunity can sometimes be a step toward war, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.
"As for immunity, this topic has already come up here, and I have already talked about it. In short, failure to recognize the immunity of a country, including immunity of property, immunity of officials, is a most decisive step toward the beginning of war, and in some situations even a world war," he said.
He was commenting on arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against former Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov.
Medvedev said the warrants run counter to international law.
"Russia, like most countries of the world, including, incidentally, the United States of America and the largest countries - China, India - is not a party to this theatrical institution called the ICC," he said. "Attempts to apply to us the norms of an international treaty, to which we are not a party, are obviously senseless. They are part of foreign policy, and an absolutely aggressive one. But the consequences, as I have already said, can be very bad for the entire humanity. Those who generate these decisions should think about this."
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov on June 25 in connection with the situation in Ukraine.
Last year, 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.
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 Vladimir Putin signed an executive order that said the country would not become a party to the ICC. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, "the ICC has failed to live up to expectations and has not become a truly independent body of international justice."
The St. Petersburg International Legal Forum is taking place from June 26-28. TASS is its prime media partner.