Washington increases pressure on Russia by calling on European countries to arrest Putin
The United States has demanded that any European state party to the International Criminal Court “arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he visits”, in what appears to be an escalatory step in response to the Russian president’s “provocations” after his visit to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after it was taken over by Russian forces. Meanwhile, Russia responded by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chief of the National Security Council, that any attempt to arrest the president would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in response to a question from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham at a Senate hearing, said, “I believe that anyone who is a party to the court and has obligations should meet their obligations,” CNN reported.
Observers see Blinken’s remarks as an internal matter. It is difficult to catch Putin because he has very serious repercussions on world peace and no country can implement him in practice.
Blinken’s remarks ratchet up pressure on Russia and its leaders and are part of an effort to isolate it internationally, but Moscow has managed to break the isolation in a number of arenas, particularly on the African continent, by strengthening its influence in the Sahel.
Medvedev, a former president and staunch Putin ally, told Russian media on Thursday that the ICC was a “legal entity with no value” that had never done anything significant. Russia, China and the United States do not recognize the court.
Any attempt to arrest Putin would be tantamount to a declaration of war, he said. “Let’s imagine the situation, and it clearly will never happen, but let’s imagine: the current president of a nuclear state went to a place like Germany, for example, and was arrested.”
“What will that be,” he said in a Telegram video. It would be a declaration of war against the Russian Federation… in that case all our (war) assets, all our missiles, etc.. You will fly to the chancellery office and the Bundestag building,” referring to the German parliament.
“Putin has rarely left Russia in recent years, nor has he gone to the United States since 2015.”
“On Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin, along with another targeting Maria Belova, the Kremlin’s commissioner for children.”
The court said in a statement that the arrest warrant against Putin “is responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting children from the occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia”, which Moscow rejected as “illegal and of no consequence to it”.
The International Criminal Court (based in The Hague, Netherlands) added that the “crimes” in question were committed at least as of February 24, 2022.
“It is true,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said when asked if Putin would be arrested if he stepped foot in any of the 123 countries.
In response, Russia has opened a criminal investigation against Karim Khan and several judges, while the court rejected any move to threaten the judges.
China also called on the ICC to avoid “politicization and double standards” and “respect the immunity enjoyed by heads of state.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wen urged the court to “wisely exercise its functions and powers, by law, and interpret and apply international law in good faith.”
Describing relations with the West as definitely at their worst, Medvedev said that nuclear risks were growing. “Every day that Ukraine is supplied with weapons from abroad brings the world closer to total nuclear destruction,” he added.
He noted that the West now wants to divide Russia into a group of weak states to steal its vast natural resources.
The West denies that it wants to destroy Russia and says it is helping Ukraine defend itself against colonial land grabs.
“Ukraine is part of Russia,” Medvedev said, adding that most of today’s Ukraine was part of the Russian empire.
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