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● Comprehensive planning will be established in trade, including in the IT sector, trade in resources.
2.11 ICC arrest warrant for Putin
On March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. The Court ruled that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin and Lvova-Belova are responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children and of unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Although chances of arresting Putin are slim, issuing a warrant for the arrest of a sitting world leader is still a significant step, BMB Russia reports.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the decision“outrageous and unacceptable.” “Russia, like a number of other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court,” Peskov said, “therefore, its decisions are insignificant for the Russian Federation from a legal standpoint.” Several other Russian officials took it a step further, threatening to retaliateagainst the ICC with force. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested a missile strike on the Hague courthouse; “So, judges, look carefully to the sky,” he posted on Telegram. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, also threatened missile strikes on any country that tried to arrest Putin. Additionally, the Russian Investigative Committee opened criminal cases against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and the ICC judges who issued the warrants. Regarding the warrant for her arrest, Lvova-Belova said, “It’s great that the international community appreciated the work to help the children of our country.”
Putin has not spoken about his warrant, but he did make a “spontaneous” trip to Mariupol this week. This was his first visit to the eastern Donbas since the beginning of the invasion. While there, Putin toured rebuilt areas of the city and spoke with local residents. One resident reportedly called the city “a little piece of heaven.” However, a woman can be heard in the background of a video shouting, “It’s all not true! It’s for show!” Putin also visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula's annexation. “The criminal always returns to the crime scene,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said about Putin’s visit.
On another note, 15 Ukrainian children were returned from Russia to Ukraine on Monday. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said that these children are from cities in the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts that were occupied in the beginning of the invasion. He added that, as of now, Ukraine has managed to return 308 children of the estimated 16,000 who have been deported to Russia since the beginning of the invasion.
37 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com