Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on statements by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Karim Khan, has applied for warrants of arrest of three citizens of South Ossetia who also have Russian citizenship, for alleged war crimes against ethnic Georgians. He has also requested authorisation to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine.

Of course, there is a reason behind the prosecutor’s decisions. He has decided to contribute to the anti-Russia hysteria that is raging in the United States, the EU and the bodies they are controlling. The time chosen to issue arrest warrants and the choice of the parties accused has shown clearly that the ICC has always been and remains an obedient tool of the West.

It is especially cynical that the decision to issue arrest warrants [against South Ossetians] was taken 14 years after the regime of Mikheil Saakashvili attacked peaceful Tskhinval and Russian peacekeepers and long after the ICC received numerous complaints from the civilian victims of that attack. For years before that, the ICC has remained indifferent to their appeals. But it has now decided to present the injured party as the guilty party.

In the opinion of the ICC, there is no need to investigate the crimes committed by the United States and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those situations were investigated for years before the court decided to dismiss them, clearly at the request of the “interested parties.” Furthermore, the ICC is still not investigating the crimes committed by ISIS.

As for Ukraine, the prosecutor’s approach was based on distorted interpretations of the developments there from the very beginning. The bloody anti-constitutional coup in Kiev, the burning of people alive in Odessa, or the crimes committed for years against the people of Donbass were not regarded as a sufficient reason for opening a formal investigation. The Hague Themis only got busy in connection with Russia’s special operation.

It will be interesting to see how the ICC qualifies the use of Ukrainian civilians as live shields by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalists, the launch of a Tochka-U missile at civilians in Donetsk, or any other atrocities committed by the Kiev regime.

I would like to remind everyone that the Russian Federation is not a party to the ICC Rome Statute and is not obliged to cooperate with the court. This body has no jurisdiction over the territory of Russia and South Ossetia or their citizens. Nevertheless, we will closely monitor the court’s activities.