MOSCOW (London Post /Reuters): An attempt to arrest Putin amounts to a declaration of war on Russia after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him, his ally Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. said to
The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday, indicting Putin for the war crimes of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. There is reason to believe that Putin bears personal criminal responsibility.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that the International Criminal Court, which is not recognized by countries such as Russia, China and the United States, is a “legal non-entity” and has not done anything important.
But any attempt to arrest Putin would be a declaration of war, said Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful Security Council. “Let’s imagine – obviously this situation will never happen – but let’s imagine it did:
The current heads of nuclear-weapon states went to the territory of Germany, for example, and were arrested, ”Medvedev said.
“What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” he said in a video posted to Telegram. I will fly to the prefecture.”
The Kremlin says the ICC arrest warrant is an outrageous partisan decision, but meaningless in relation to Russia. Russian officials have denied committing war crimes in Ukraine and say the West has ignored what it calls Ukrainian war crimes. Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked the worst European conflict since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
According to Medvedev, relations with the West are probably at their worst ever.
Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to his 2012, has established himself as a pro-Western reformer. Since the war, however, he has emerged as one of the most publicly militant Russian officials, insulting Western leaders and issuing a series of nuclear warnings. Nuclear risks are rising, he said.
“The daily delivery of foreign weapons to Ukraine brings the nuclear apocalypse closer,” Medvedev said.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Putin put an end to the Western view of themselves as Russia’s bosses.
“They were very angry,” Medvedev said, adding that the West did not like independence for Russia and China.
The West is now trying to divide Russia into a number of weak states and steal its vast natural resources, he said. Putin has described the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle to protect Russia from the arrogant and aggressive Western powers that seek to divide it.
The West denies wanting to destroy Russia and says it is helping Ukraine defend itself against imperial land grabbing. Ukraine says it will not rest until all Russian soldiers are expelled from its territory.
“Ukraine is part of Russia,” Medvedev said, adding that almost all of present-day Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire. Russia recognized Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders since 1991 in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Medvedev said that relations with the West would eventually improve, but that it would take a long time.
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