The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now the Russian dictator has the official status of a suspect. However, the next step is to perform certain actions.

Political scientist Andrei Vigirinsky told Channel 24 about this. He believes that the media weight of this event is exaggerated.

Judgment must stop illegal activities

In his opinion, it is better to assess the legal plane of the issue from the point of view of the fact that it is one of the elements of the process that has certain procedural tasks. They were voiced in the office of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “They believe that the announcement of a detention order can stop the commission of similar or related criminal offenses. We are talking about the forced deportation of children. There is also a reference there that Russian legislation has simplified the procedure for adopting and accepting Ukrainian children into the family of Russian citizens. The Hague court is counting on the fact that their procedural decision will stop this illegal activity,” the political scientist explained. In his opinion, this is to a certain extent a utopian hope. All other insinuations are “political signals”, “handshake”, “the democratic world sends a signal Putin” is demagogy. “If we say that the International Criminal Court sends “political signals”, we immediately question its impartiality in the administration of justice. And as a result, his possible court decision is questioned,” Vigirinsky said.

The year has not been in vain

He drew attention to the fact that issuing a warrant for Putin's arrest does not mean that he will be convicted and found guilty.

The last 7-8 cases when warrants for detention were announced to the leaders of countries, at least in 2 cases there were acquittals, the interlocutor recalled.

The political scientist noted that from a legal point of view, this decision indicates that the International Criminal Court demonstrates that it exists. And he also demonstrates that the year was not in vain and they found something against Putin. And this is something in the plane of crimes of aggression. One of their manifestations is, in particular, forced migration or resettlement of people from a certain country to an aggressor country with their subsequent assimilation and naturalization on the territory of this country. “This is one of the types of crimes for which enough evidence has been collected that gives reason to believe that Putin committed this crime. But in order to find out whether he committed the rank, you need to bring him to court, collect additional evidence. And the court will continue to do this “, he explained. Andrey Vigirinsky commented on the court's decision to issue a warrant for Putin's arrest: watch the video

To be interpreted from a procedural point of view

Vigirinsky noted that not all countries that have ratified the Rome Charter and have close relations with Russia will stop communicating with Putin.

And then Russian propaganda will say that the institutions that the West has built over the years are not effective, because from the point of view of international law, their supremacy is not recognized in those countries that have ratified these documents, he suggested.

On the one hand, the International Criminal Court established the facts and issued a warrant for Putin's detention. On the other hand, if this order is not executed, and Putin, provoking such a public controversy, makes a visit to one of these countries, this will undermine the authority of this body, the political scientist emphasized.

“This does not mean that this event should be interpreted as treason. It should be interpreted exclusively from a procedural point of view,” summed up Andrey Vigirinsky.

What is known about the warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin

• On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for dictator Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian presidential commissioner for children.
• Pre-trial Chamber II issued warrants for the arrest of Putin and Maria Lvovo-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children.
• Putin and Lvov-Belov are involved in the illegal deportation and movement of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. This has been happening since February 24, 2022.
• The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, stressed that there is convincing evidence that Putin is responsible for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories.
• The warrants were issued on the basis of petitions filed by the prosecutor's office on February 22, 2023.