Ukraine war: International court issues warrant for Putin's arrest
By Bart H. Meijer and Olena Harmash March 17, 20235:00 PM CDT Last Updated 22 min ago * Court in The Hague issues arrest warrant for Putin * Putin accused of illegally removing children from Ukraine * Russians react with outrage, disbelief, scorn * 'Hands off Putin' says Russia's parliament chief * Comes days before China's President Xi visits Moscow
AMSTERDAM/KYIV, March 17 (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging Moscow's forcible deportation of Ukrainian children is a war crime, as the Kremlin reacted with outrage.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the move would lead to "historic accountability", adding that the deportations constituted a policy of "state evil which starts precisely with the top official of this state." The announcement provoked a furious response from Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC "outrageous and unacceptable", and that any decisions of the court were "null and void" with respect to Russia. Russia, like the United States and China, is not a member of the ICC.
Russia has not concealed a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.
"Yankees, hands off Putin!" wrote parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of the president, on Telegram.
"We regard any attacks on the president of the Russian Federation as aggression against our country," he said.
The United States said there was "no doubt" Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine. The court also issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, on the same charges. Putin, only the third serving president to have been issued an arrest warrant by the ICC, is unlikely to end up in court any time soon. But the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent to The Hague if he travels to any ICC member states. "This makes Putin a pariah. If he travels he risks arrest. This never goes away. Russia cannot gain relief from sanctions without compliance with the warrants," said Stephen Rapp, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes.
Residents of the Russian capital expressed disbelief at the news. "Putin! Nobody will arrest him," a man who gave his name only as Daniil, 20, told Reuters.
Maxim said, "We will protect him - the people of Russia."
BEIJING, MOSCOW TIES
Moscow's forces have been accused of multiple abuses during Russia's year-old invasion of its neighbour Ukraine, including by a U.N.-mandated investigative body that this week described soldiers making children watch loved ones being raped.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations its forces have committed atrocities during the invasion, which it calls a special military operation.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan began investigating possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine a year ago. He said he was looking at alleged crimes against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure.
News of the arrest warrant came ahead of a planned state visit to Moscow next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping which is likely to cement much closer ties between Russia and China just as relations between Moscow and the West hit new lows.
Beijing and Moscow struck a "no limits" partnership shortly before the invasion, and U.S. and European leaders have said they are concerned Beijing may send arms to Russia.
China has denied any such plan, criticising Western weapon supplies to Ukraine, which will soon extend to fighter jets after Poland and Slovakia this week approved deliveries. The Kremlin said the jets would be destroyed and not change the course of the conflict.
China is keen to deflect Western criticism over Ukraine, but its close ties to Russia and its refusal to label Moscow’s war an invasion have fuelled scepticism about the prospect that Beijing might act as a mediator in the conflict.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday the United States had deep concerns China might try to promote a ceasefire because that would not currently lead to a just and lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.
BAKHMUT FIGHTING
Ukrainian forces continued on Friday to withstand Russian assaults on the ruined city of Bakhmut, the focal point for eight months of Russian attempts to advance through the industrial Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine bordering Russia.
Bakhmut has become Europe's bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two. Russian forces have captured the city's eastern part but have so far failed to encircle it.
The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said Russia had carried out 19 airstrikes and 26 rocket attacks on Friday.
Russian forces also conducted four air strikes on the frontline town of Avdiivka south of Bakhmut on Friday, Yermak, the Ukrainian presidential staff chief, wrote on Telegram. "The city is being shelled almost around the clock," he wrote.
Reuters could not immediately verify those battlefield reports.
Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians but says it has hit infrastructure to degrade Ukraine's military and remove what it says is a potential threat to its own security.
Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to grab territory from its pro-Western neighbour.
Two involving your Putin using doubles guy, Sergey Zhirnov.
Sergey Zhirnov: The top Russian elite must understand once and for all that Putin is suicidal
Interview The Odessa Journal 1 February, 2023 1 Comment 299
Ex-employee of the KGB and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Zhirnov, in an interview with Unian, told how he sees the best and only way out of the Russian Federation from the war unleashed against Ukraine.
“The problem lies with Putin. The best way out for Russia is to destroy, liquidate Putin, and hang all the sins on him. I repeat this in every interview, and I will repeat it until all the idiots in the Russian Federation, above all, the elite, understand that the only way out of the situation created by Putin is to eliminate him.
As soon as this happens, it will be possible to resolve the situation. Another thing is whether they will take advantage of this opportunity. If you bring to power “Prigozhins”, “Dugins” and other crazy nationalists who want to unleash the Third World War, then there is no point in removing Putin.
But if you want to get Russia out of a completely hopeless situation once and for all, then there is only one way out – to eliminate or hand over Putin to The Hague and return everything back – before the referendums, before the war, roll back to changes in the Constitution under Putin. To say that everything Putin did was a computer virus.
Paradoxically, this is achieved by a straightforward decision: the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation meets, and all decisions of state authorities in recent years are canceled. Everything returns to the last working configuration – 34 years ago. Accordingly, everyone associated with these decisions is removed from office, arrested, imprisoned, or sent to The Hague. Here is a great way out for Russia.
This process will be from within the country. But this will not be some kind of popular indignation, this will be a struggle of the elites. This should be understood by the most intelligent people now in Russia’s elite. This must be understood by Patrushev, Bortnikov, Volodin, Matvienko, Sobyanin, and 117 billionaires who are losing their money and the opportunity to live in peace every day.
The top Russian elite must understand once and for all that Putin is suicidal. What he is doing is the suicide of the Russian Federation. Neither him personally nor his regime, but the suicide of the country. The entire elite, which listens and watches us, but is still interfering and afraid, must understand that we are talking about their existence, life or death. They won’t survive if they don’t throw this man off. I am sure they will find partners in the Russian special services, the army, and the Federal Protective Service, which guards Putin.
History shows that most people built into the elites always manage to get away with it. When eras change, people with power and money always have the opportunity to get good lawyers and get away. Take Nazi Germany. In Nuremberg, they condemned the very best, and not even all of them, some were acquitted. And if we take it all over Germany, how many rather influential people are left, built into the Nazi system, who did not suffer any significant punishment, remained in power, and even participated in creating a new Germany?
This is the logic of restructuring. You cannot declare the whole country guilty of everything because the same elite must restore and rebuild it. Another thing is that it will be necessary to carry out lustration. But who will carry it out? Where to find white angels that are not stained with blood? As a result, it turns out that the same administration in it always deals with the restructuring of the dictatorship, but these people simply did not directly make bloodthirsty decisions. Like Nabiullina and other liberal economists, and technocrats.
Calling for a coup there, eh. This February 2, one day later.
Sergey Zhirnov: The Kremlin clearly understood that Prigozhin is a hazardous weapon
Interview The Odessa Journal 2 February, 2023 0 Comments 207
Ex-employee of the KGB and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Zhirnov in an interview with Unian, told how he sees the best and only way out of the Russian Federation from the war unleashed against Ukraine.
“The Kremlin clearly understood that Prigozhin is a hazardous weapon. They needed it. After all, Putin is a person who constantly arranges some kind of showdown. And in this sense, he did it right because it allowed him to sit in power for 23 years. He always created groups of influence and acted as their supreme judge. And when he felt that the group influence of the military on the eve or at the beginning of the “special operation” began to put pressure on him, he needed counterweights. From here came Kadyrov and Prigozhine.
Both Kadyrov and Prigozhin started to play, and they decided that their finest hour had come. Prigozhin remembered that in the 90s Putin was nobody and suddenly became the president of the Russian Federation. He thinks that he became a billionaire, became famous all over the world with the Wagner PMC, and why shouldn’t he now become instead of Putin? Moreover, unlike Putin, he is a real thug, and in this sense, he will be accepted by the Russian cattle, who are led to “wet” Putin in the toilet.
Prigozhin played too hard, and, of course, he was hit on the handles. But so far, he hasn’t been given much. After all, it is not necessary to kill Prigozhin; he can simply be imprisoned at any time, because the Wagner PMC is an illegal mercenary formation, for the creation of which 7 years in prison are due and 8 years for participating in its work. In addition, there was a demonstrative execution of their former colleague, and this premeditated murder by a group of people by conspiracy is a life sentence. It is elementary to plant. There are as many possibilities as you like to shut up Prigozhine. In fact, Putin is afraid to part with him because he knows that if he puts Prigozhine to rest now, those who he and Kadyrov created to fight against will return.
Putin is in a difficult situation. Imagine. A small, puny man sits in the Kremlin and pretends to be an all-powerful dictator. Any power is built on the voluntary consent of the elites and the people to carry out your orders. By voluntary consent. As soon as the first person around you says: “And you are nobody, but the king is naked,” you give the order to imprison this person or eliminate him. But if a man with a gun does not execute your order, then your power finally ends here. And Putin is afraid that the FSO, which protects him, will become his jailers. He has a tough position. I think he realizes that the elites will hang all the dogs on him.
Putin in 2022 did the most extraordinary stupidity of his life. He had to quietly, calmly retire, become a pensioner and live with his billions. But Kazakhstan scared him in January 2022. He realized that even if Elbasy becomes such a leader, some Tokayev would knock him over, return the Constitution in the opposite direction, change the capital’s name in the opposite direction, hold elections, and return the country to normal. Putin was afraid of this and decided: “I have no choice but to start a war against an external enemy.” But in any case, on February 21, 2022, Putin signed his death warrant as a dictator. Politically, he is already dead. He does not exist as a head of state because the leading man in the world said so. The President of the United States of America called him a war criminal and a butcher. And the head of Ukraine said there would be no more conversation with Putin. Everybody. Putin does not exist politically. He is already a chicken without a head, still running, but he no longer has a head.” https://odessa-journal.com/sergey-zhirnov-the-kremlin-clearly-understood-that-prigozhin-is-a-hazardous-weapon/
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