Russian parliament speaker seeks to ban ICC in country, make it illegal to support it

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, suggests making it an offence to support the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We need to draft changes to the national legal system which will ban any activities of the ICC in Russia and make it an offence to abet and support the ICC,” Volodin wrote in his Telegram channel.

He also said that efforts should be made to “sign bilateral treaties with friendly countries that will ensure that both sides will not cooperate with the ICC”.

The speaker also believes that Putin should have the “right for any action” to protect Russians “in case international institutions make decisions that run counter to the Russian constitution”.

Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee opened criminal cases against the ICC prosecutor and judges: Karim Ahmad Khan, Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez.

The International Criminal Court headquartered in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Putin and Russian commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova on 17 March. 

Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”, the ICC press release reads. Lvova-Belova is suspected of the same crimes.