Russia's parliament bans foreign court rulings to reject ICC jurisdiction
Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, approved a bill on Tuesday to ban the enforcement of foreign criminal court rulings, a move designed to shield President Vladimir Putin from the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, French news agency AFP reports.
According to the new measure, rulings issued by foreign courts whose jurisdiction is not recognized by Russia or which are not based on UN Security Council resolutions will no longer be applied within Russia. These are constitutional amendments aimed at protecting Russian officials from foreign legal challenges.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023, citing the alleged war crimes of forcible deportation and the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children into Russian-occupied territories during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Following the warrant’s issuance, the Kremlin immediately rejected the court’s jurisdiction over Vladimir Putin and other senior military and political officials involved in Moscow's ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
Russia initially signed the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding document, in 2000, but never ratified it. Moscow formally withdrew its signature in 2016 after the court ruled that the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea constitutes a 'permanent occupation' under international law.
Despite the standing ICC arrest warrant over the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children, President Putin has continued to travel internationally, visiting countries such as Mongolia that are signatories to the ICC statute. These nations have so far ignored the call to arrest the Russian leader.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
