MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has shown that the world is not with Ukraine, according to Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of the now-banned-in-Ukraine Opposition Platform-For Life party.
"The slogan of the [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky regime 'the whole world is with us' is crumbling before our eyes. Recently Ukrainian propagandists had another chance to see this. As the Russian Foreign Ministry has said, on January 31, the ICJ avoided following Kiev’s lead and categorically refused to recognize Russia as an 'aggressor state'. The court also rejected Ukrainian insinuations that the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics were allegedly 'terrorist organizations'," he wrote in his column on the Smotrim.ru website.
Medvedchuk, who now leads the Other Ukraine movement, believes that the Ukrainian authorities were hoping to hear the ICJ’s political decision, rather than a juridical one. However, according to Medvedchuk, "it has never occurred to the narrow-minded Ukrainian diplomats that Western curators are not the masters of the whole world." In his opinion, the degradation of the Ukrainian judicial system brought about a situation where the plaintiffs were unable to imagine the case would be considered in a way they might not like. Medvedchuk believes that the Ukrainian leadership hoped for a court decision in their favor in order to further seize frozen Russian assets.
Among the reasons for Ukraine's defeat in court, the politician mentioned the lack of evidence that Ukrainian lawyers had been expected to opresent to back up their charges. For the Ukrainian politicians and diplomats serving the Zelensky regime it is unclear why hysterical behavior is not considered as solid evidence in court, Medvedchuk said. Another reason for the failure of the Ukrainian authorities, he says, is the mixing of "ethnic and 'racial' issues with political ones," which not only demonstrates the incompetence and groundlessness of accusations, but also provides "a basis for accusing the Zelensky regime of Nazism," as it was the Nazis who used to mix racial and political issues.
The third reason why the ICJ made such a decision, according to Medvedchuk, is the strengthening of Russia's international position, while Ukraine "unreasonably ceased to consider Russia an actor in its own right in international relations."
"Attempts by the Zelensky regime to accuse Russia and make money on the 'racial theory' turned out to be in vain. Moreover, they revealed the narrow-minded Nazi essence of the regime," Medvedchuk said. He also pointed out that the world was getting increasingly aware of the threats being posed by the current Ukrainian leadership. This understanding is "expanding and strengthening," he stated.
About Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia
Earlier, the ICJ rejected most of Ukraine's claims against Russia in the lawsuit regarding the application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
On January 16, 2017, Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the ICJ accusing Russia of violating the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In this case, the Ukrainian side tried to portray the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics as terrorist organizations and argued that Russia financed and supported them them, including through the supply of weapons. As for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Ukraine claimed that a deliberate campaign of racial discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians was allegedly taking place in Crimea. The Russian side rejected all the accusations.