FILE PHOTO: A panoramic view of the Kremlin, St. Basil鈥檚 Cathedral, and Zaryadye Park in Moscow, Russia on May 12, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
The Kremlin said Friday that an arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Russian President Vladimir Putin was outrageous but meaningless with respect to Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC 鈥渙utrageous and unacceptable鈥� but noted that Russia, like many other countries, did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
鈥淎nd accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of the law.鈥�
READ: ICC judges issue arrest warrant against Putin over alleged war crimes
Asked if Putin now feared traveling to countries that recognized the ICC and might therefore try to arrest him, Peskov told reporters: 鈥淚 have nothing to add on this subject. That鈥檚 all we want to say.鈥�
Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian commissioner for children鈥檚 rights, was like Putin accused by the ICC of the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.
READ: Factbox: Details of ICC arrest warrant against Putin
鈥淚t鈥檚 great that the international community has appreciated this work to help the children of our country: that we don鈥檛 leave them in war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,鈥� she told journalists, according to the state-run RIA news agency.
Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but never ratified it to become a member of the ICC, and finally withdrew its signature in 2016.
READ: Russia, Ukraine battle for Bakhmut as ICC seeks war crime arrest warrants
At the time, Russia was under international pressure over its seizure and unilateral annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, as well as a campaign of air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad鈥檚 war against rebels.
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