Russia's Medvedev threatens ICC, asks judges to "watch the skies closely"

Mar 21, 2023

Moscow [Russia], March 20 : The ruling of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin will have disastrous consequences for international law, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday, TASS reported.
"They decided to put on trial the president........ of a nuclear power that isn't party to the ICC for the same reasons as the US and some other countries. It's obvious that the directive was the harshest possible," the politician said on Telegram.
He also said that "ICC judges shouldn't have raised their hand against a major nuclear power," TASS reported.
"I'm afraid, gentlemen, everyone is answerable to God and missiles. It's quite possible to imagine how a hypersonic Oniks fired from a Russian warship in the North Sea strikes the court building in the Hague. It can't be shot down, I'm afraid. And the court is just a pathetic international organization, not the people of a NATO country. So, they won't start a war. They'll be scared. And no one will be sorry," the official said.
He urged the judges to "watch the skies closely."
"It's clear there's no practical value but thanks for your thoughts. But the consequences for international law will be disastrous. This means a collapse of the foundations, and the principles of law, including the postulate of the inevitability of punishment. No one now will be turning to international institutions. Everyone will be making agreements between themselves. All the foolish decisions of the UN and other organizations will be bursting at the seams. A dark decline of the entire system of international relations is coming. Trust has been exhausted," Medvedev said, Russian agency TASS reported.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the ruling by saying Moscow doesn't recognize ICC jurisdiction.
Reacting to this, Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council, suggested on Monday that the Kremlin could fire a hypersonic missile at the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the organization issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, FOX News reported.
Dmitry Medvedev said "It's quite possible to imagine how a hypersonic Oniks fired from a Russian warship in the North Sea strikes the court building in the Hague. It can't be shot down, I'm afraid," reported FOX News.
FOX News reported that as many as 16,226 children have been deported during the 13-month-long war, according to Ukrainian human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets.
President Biden called the warrant for Putin's arrest "justified" over the weekend, saying that he has "clearly committed war crimes."
Other Russian officials brushed off the warrant by the ICC, which Russia does not recognize. The US and China also were not signatories of the 1998 Rome Statute, which established the court's authority.
Medvedev has a history of making profane predictions, including that civil war will break out in the US in 2023 and that the defeat of Russia in a conventional war could "provoke the beginning of a nuclear war."
Earlier this month, he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the "head Nazi," despite the fact that Zelenskyy is Jewish. On Friday, Medvedev used abusive language for Senator Lindsey Graham after a Russian fighter jet collided with a U.S. reaper drone over the Black Sea, reported FOX News.