MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a topic of conversation during preparations for his visit to Mongolia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RBC.
"Regarding the ICC. During the preparation of the visit of the Russian president to the Mongolian capital, this issue did not arise at all. In my opinion, it is a false narrative. Double standards be damned, this is what the West is putting forward," the top diplomat said.
Lavrov pointed out that "the Americans are not a party to the Rome Statute." "The ICC prosecutor tried to investigate blatant war crimes being committed in Afghanistan, including by the Americans, the British, the Australians. They even wiped out wedding parties. Just in case. Something moves - they don't even look at who, why, they just bomb them to death. Dozens, hundreds of victims. When the International Criminal Court tried to deal with these cases, the Americans said they would impose sanctions on all of them," the minister recalled.
According to Lavrov, history repeated itself recently "when the ICC talked about the need to declare Israel's leadership wanted. "Immediately they were told to stop, and poof, everyone went silent," he pointed out. "Against this background, when the same United States demands that all countries fulfill their 'sacred duty' to arrest Vladimir Putin, I think it is clear even to someone who doesn’t follow politics how much this reeks of double standards, it’s just brimming with them," the top diplomat underscored.
The foreign minister emphasized that at the same time, the BRICS countries are guided by international law, which is "much older and wiser than the statute of the International Criminal Court and has been providing and guaranteeing the immunity of heads of state for many years." "The ICC is only a few decades old and is not universal. The norms I am talking about are universal," Lavrov concluded.