French MEP Thierry Mariani said that the propaganda work of the International Criminal Court on the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin has nothing to do with justice.
“The decision of the International Criminal Court is an act that falls under the scope of a propaganda war and is not a legal act,” the parliamentarian said in an interview with TASS on Saturday. What they have done will have no legal consequences.
He pointed out that the powers of the International Criminal Court “are not recognized by the three permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, China and the United States)”.
He added: “The authorities of a number of other countries, such as India, do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court.”
Mariani said: “I found it funny that US President Joe Biden upheld the decision of the International Criminal Court, while his country does not recognize this institution.”
Mariani added: “It is absurd to say that this decree can prevent the Russian president from traveling abroad” … “This is nothing more than a PR campaign in a propaganda war.”
On Friday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova Belova on charges of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
Commenting on the decision, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
In turn, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented, speaking of information received from The Hague, that the decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for Russia, and the arrest warrants in question are invalid from a legal point of view.
In 2016, President Putin issued a decree terminating procedures for joining the International Criminal Court. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the tribunal “did not justify the hopes placed on it and did not become a truly independent body of international justice.”
Source: TASS