Any attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest would be a declaration of war against Russia, according to his ally and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday, March 23.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin last week, accusing him of war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. According to the ICC, there are reasonable grounds to believe Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.
Russian officials deny committing war crimes in Ukraine and claim that the West has ignored what they claim are Ukrainian war crimes.
Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that the International Criminal Court, which is not recognized by Russia, China, or the United States, was a “legal nonentity” that had never done anything significant.
Any attempt to detain Putin, on the other hand, would be a declaration of war, according to Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful security council.
“Let’s imagine – obviously, this will never happen – but let’s imagine it did: the current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say, Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said.
“What exactly would that be?” It would be a declaration of war against the Russian Federation,” he said in a Telegram video.
“And in that case, all of our assets, missiles, and so on, would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor’s office.”
According to Medvedev, the ICC arrest warrant is an outrageously partisan decision that has no bearing on Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 triggered the deadliest European conflict since World War II, as well as the most serious confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Medvedev stated that Russia-US relations were likely at their lowest point ever.
“Every day that foreign weapons are delivered to Ukraine brings the nuclear apocalypse closer,” Medvedev said.
He claimed that after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the West considered itself to be the rulers of Russia, but Putin put an end to that.
“They were very offended,” Medvedev said, adding that the West despised Russia and China’s independence.
“Ukraine is a part of Russia,” Medvedev declared, adding that nearly all of modern-day Ukraine was once part of the Russian empire. In the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, Russia acknowledged Ukraine’s post-1991 sovereignty and borders.
“I believe that sooner or later, the situation will stabilize and communications will resume,” he said. “However, I sincerely hope that by that time, a significant number of those people (Western leaders) will have retired and some will be dead.”
