⚡️ The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation: Russia files criminal charges against ICC prosecutor and judges

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has initiated criminal charges against Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Ahmad Khan, as well as judges of the International Criminal Court Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.

On February 22, 2023, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Ahmad Khan, acting as part of a criminal investigation, submitted applications to Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court for warrants of arrest in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation.

Based on this application, the above-named judges of the International Criminal Court issued illegal arrest warrants in relation to the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

This criminal prosecution is illegal by definition because there are no grounds for bringing criminal charges.

According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons of December 14, 1973, heads of state enjoy total immunity and cannot be subjected to the jurisdiction of a foreign state.

Actions by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court contain elements of offences as per Part 2, Article 299, Part 1, Article 30, and Part 2, Article 360 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including knowingly ascribing criminal responsibility to an innocent person, combined with unlawfully accusing a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime, as well as preparing an assault against a representative of a foreign state benefitting from international protection with a view to complicating international relations.

Actions by the judges of the International Criminal Court contain elements of offences as per Part 2, Article 301, Part 1, Article 30, and Part 2, Article 360 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including knowingly illegal detention, as well as preparing an assault against a representative of a foreign state benefitting from international protection with a view to complicating international relations.

🎙 Statement by a Russian representative during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Iran at the UNHRC 52-nd Session:

🇷🇺 Russia consistently rejects the attempts to politicize human rights issues.

🇮🇷 Iran's example shows how the Western countries continue to use pseudo-humanistic pretexts to follow their usual path of destabilizing domestic situations in the countries they do not like, i.a. by encouraging riots and violence.

❗️ We are revolted by the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on Iran regarding the need to impose targeted sanctions against individuals and organizations. Instead of assisting Iran in solving the existing problems, the expert merely hypes up and inflames anti-Iranian sentiments. Not to mention the fact that the issues of imposing sanctions do not fall within the competence of both the HRC and the expert mechanisms it creates.

📄 Full statement (🇷🇺/🇬🇧)

🎙 Statement by a Russian Representative during the interactive dialogue with the Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia at the UNHRC 52nd Session:

🇪🇹 We closely monitor the recent developments in Ethiopia, including the military-political and humanitarian situation in the Tigray region.

👏 We welcome the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front in Pretoria last November in accordance with the "African problems – African solutions" principle.

🤝 We positively assess the steps of the Ethiopian Government promoting an inclusive national dialogue to address key domestic policy issues. We welcome the resumption of humanitarian supplies to Tigray and its gradual return to normal life.

🇷🇺 For its part, Russia will continue to provide political and diplomatic assistance to Ethiopia to further stabilize the situation in the country.

📄 Full statement (🇷🇺/🇬🇧)

🎙 Statement by a Russian representative during the interactive dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria at the UNHRC 52nd Session:

🇸🇾 The situation in Syria remains difficult. Thousands of people died in a powerful earthquake, housing and critical infrastructure facilities sustained serious damage.

💥 Residents in Northern Syria live under the threat of another military escalation. Foreign powers still occupy significant territories. Regular Israeli strikes lead to the destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties.

❗️ We reiterate categorical inadmissibility of unilateral sanctions against Syria, which hit the most vulnerable segments of its population. Stabilization in the country is possible only through restoration of its sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity as prescribed in all relevant international decisions, including UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions.

📄 Full statement (🇷🇺/🇬🇧)

🎙 Statement by a Russian representative during the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner at the UNHRC 52nd Session:

🤝 We share the High Commissioner's assessment of the need to lift the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the US, Great Britain and the EU, which negatively affect the lives of Venezuelans, violate their rights, exacerbate the economic crisis, worsen the humanitarian situation in the country.

👏 Given the current socio-economic conditions, we highly appreciate the efforts of the Venezuelan Government in ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of the country's citizens. Despite the sanctions against the country's economy, the Venezuelan authorities continue to implement measures of social support.

❗️ We proceed from the fact that only a constructive and mutually respectful dialogue, which would take the legitimate interests of Venezuela into account, can become the key to a successful resolution of the human rights challenges facing this country.

📄 Full statement (🇷🇺/🇬🇧)

🎙 Выступление Г.М.Гатилова в ходе диалога по докладу Верховного комиссара ООН по правам человека о ситуации в Республике Беларусь:

⚠️ Отмечаем ангажированный характер представленного доклада.

🇧🇾 Народ Беларуси сталкивается с беспрецедентным санкционным давлением и нарушением своих прав Западом. Без мандата ООН против этой страны вводятся экономические ограничения, замораживаются активы, закрываются пункты пропуска на границе. Цель этих противоправных мер – дестабилизировать внутриполитическую ситуацию в стране.

👉 Обеспокоены попытками Запада возродить националистическое движение в Беларуси. Такие организации неофашистского толка целенаправленно готовятся на Украине.

🤐 Вскормленные «коллективным Западом» правозащитные организации замалчивают все эти вопиющие факты. К сожалению, на этот путь встало и УВКПЧ.

❗️ Призываем прекратить вмешательство во внутренние дела Беларуси и продемонстрировать, наконец, реальную заботу о белорусах без внешнего давления под предлогом заботы о правах человека.

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🎙 Statement by Ambassador Gennady Gatilov during the interactive dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on his report on the Republic of Belarus:

⚠️ We note the biased nature of the presented report.

🇧🇾 The people of Belarus now face unprecedented sanctions pressure and violations of their rights by the West. The goal of the illegal restrictions imposed without a UN mandate is to destabilize the domestic political situation in the country.

👉 We are concerned about the Western attempts to revive the nationalist movement in Belarus.

🤐 Nurtured by the "collective West", the human rights organizations are silencing all these flagrant facts. Unfortunately, the OHCHR has also embarked on this path.

❗️ We urge to stop interfering in the domestic affairs of the Republic of Belarus and finally show the real concern for Belarusians, without the external pressure disguised as concerns for human rights.

📄 Full statement

Заявление Постпредства России в Женеве:

☢️ Планы Великобритании поставлять киевскому режиму боеприпасы, содержащие ядерный компонент, подтверждают намерение Лондона продолжать курс «коллективного Запада» против России с целью нанесения ей стратегического поражения.

💥 Провоцируя Киев на применение боеприпасов с ядерным компонентом, Лондон подталкивает нынешние власти Украины к дальнейшему затягиванию и эскалации конфликта с Россией, не считаясь со страданиями и жертвами среди мирного населения. Это не оставляет Киеву шансов на политико-дипломатическое урегулирование ситуации вокруг Украины.

❗️ Использование боеприпасов с обеднённым ураном является нормой при проведении боевых операций британскими военными. Это подтверждается не только их широким применением в ходе прошлых военных кампаний с участием Великобритании, но и негативной позицией Лондона в отношении резолюции «Последствия применения оружия и боеприпасов, содержащих обеднённый уран», принимаемой ГА ООН с 2007 года.

📄 Полный текст

Statement of the Russian Mission to the UN in Geneva:

☢️ The UK's plans to supply Kiev with ammunition containing a nuclear component confirm London's intent to follow down the anti-Russian path of the "collective West" in order to inflict a strategic defeat on our country.

💥 By provoking the Kiev regime to use ammunition with a nuclear component, London is pushing the current Ukrainian authorities to further prolong and escalate the conflict with Russia, regardless of the suffering and casualties among the civilian population. This leaves Kiev with no chance for a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

🇬🇧 The use of depleted uranium ammunition is typical for British combat operations. This is confirmed not only by their widespread use during the past military campaigns with UK participation, but also by London's negative stance on the resolution "Effects of the use of weapons and ammunition containing depleted uranium", adopted by the UN GA since 2007.

📄 Full statement

🕯 Today marks 80 years since the horrific “Khatyn Massacre”, when almost 150 civilians, including 75 children, were burned alive by the Nazis along with Ukrainian 118 Shutzmannshaft Battalion in a small village of Khatyn in Soviet Belarus.

▪️ 56 y.o. Joseph Kaminsky, the only adult survivor of the massacre, lived to tell the story. “The Unconquered Man” monument in Minsk (a tribute to almost 3 million Belarusians who died in the Great Patriotic War) depicts Joseph holding the body of his 15 y.o. son Adam.

▪️ According to declassified archives, savagery of the Ukrainian nationalists who willingly sided with Hitler during WWII horrified even the Germans. Grigory Vasyura, a Ukrainian nationalist who led the 118 Shutzmannshaft Battalion, was responsible for many punitive operations and tens of villages decimated in Belarus.

❗️ The crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices during WWII have no expiration date.

#NeverForget

🎙 Комментарий Постпреда России в Женеве Г.М.Гатилова - «20 лет войне в Ираке»:

🕯 Мир вспоминает 20-летие незаконного вторжения США в Ирак и его ужасающие последствия: более миллиона жертв и циничное разграбление этой страны, которая до сих пор ощущает эхо крупномасштабного вооруженного нападения.

🇺🇸/🇮🇶 США находятся за 9 тысяч километров от Ирака, соответственно, от Багдада в принципе не могло исходить какой-либо реальной угрозы для Вашингтона. Не было на территории ближневосточной республики и американцев, нуждавшихся в защите от систематического угнетения или физического истребления со стороны С.Хуссейна.

💥 Было лишь одно – жестокое, преступное вторжение в суверенное государство под заведомо ложным предлогом с целью свержения неугодного Белому дому режима. В итоге, на крови сотен тысяч простых иракцев обогатилась военная промышленность США.

🤐 За злодеяния в Ираке с американцев никто всерьёз так и не спросил – ни «просвещённые демократии», ни международные правозащитные организации.

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🎙 Statement by Ambassador Gennady Gatilov “Iraq War 20 years on”:

🕯 The world commemorates 20 years since the illegal US invasion of Iraq and its horrific consequences: more than a million victims and the cynical plundering of the country which still feels the echo of the large-scale armed attack.

🇺🇸/🇮🇶 The US is over 9 thousand kilometers away from Iraq, therefore, Bagdad could not have possibly posed any real threat to Washington. There were no Americans in the Middle Eastern Republic who needed protection from systematic oppression or physical extermination by Saddam Hussein.

💥 Only one thing was real – a brutal, criminal invasion of a sovereign state under an intentionally false pretext in order to overthrow the regime the White House saw as “undesirable”.

🤐 No one has seriously held the Americans accountable for their atrocities in Iraq – neither the "enlightened democracies" nor the international human rights organizations.

📄 Full statement

💬 White House NSC Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby referred to the the two Russian fighter pilots who intercepted a US military drone and secured our borders as “idiots”.

❓ He does not get why they were awarded medals and believes that Russians “have a different definition of bravery”.

🎯 You got that right, Adm. Kirby, we sure do.

📄 Statement of the State Duma of the Russian Federation ”On the Genocide of the Peoples of the Soviet Union by Germany and its Accomplices during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945“ (March 22, 2023)

Read in full

The decisions adopted in recent years by the courts of St. Petersburg, the Republic of Crimea, the Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai, the Belgorod, Bryansk, Leningrad, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov and Rostov Oblasts unequivocally qualify the criminal acts of the Nazis and their accomplices as genocide of national, ethnic and racial groups that represented the population of the USSR – the peoples of the Soviet Union.

These court decisions are a logical continuation of the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the decisions of subsequent trials of Nazi criminals and their accomplices, during which, in particular, persons who were guilty of supplying Hitler's troops with deadly weapons were convicted.

Western politicians prefer not to remember that the civilian population of the USSR, according to the plans of Hitler's colonization and Germanization of the ”eastern space“, was subject to an all-out annihilation. The barbaric extermination of civilians in accordance with Generalplan Ost was carried out in all the republics of the USSR that were invaded by the Nazi German invaders.

It is the inhumane acts of these barbaric plunderers that resulted in the total number of victims among the civilian population of the USSR during the occupation reaching 13,684,692 people. These were people who were deliberately exterminated, who died in forced labour in Germany, and those who died from the deliberately cruel conditions of the occupying regime.

❗️ The State Duma <...> hereby recognizes the criminal acts of the Nazi German fascist invaders and their accomplices against the peace-loving population of the USSR as genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union.

🗓 On March 24, 1999, the North Atlantic bloc started bombing Yugoslavia in gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter.

The US and its allies bombed Yugoslavian cities, including Belgrade, villages and civilian infrastructure for 78 days, blowing up bridges, passenger trains and buses and killing women, children and elderly people. By doing that, the West destroyed the post-WWII foundations of European security and started replacing the legitimate mechanisms that regulated international relations with a “rules-based order”.

The use of depleted uranium ammunition contaminated vast areas and caused an unprecedented rise in cancer-related diseases, which has affected many people, including the Kosovo Force (KFOR) personnel deployed there after the war by decision of the UN Security Council. Over 200,000 non-Albanian residents of Kosovo, who had to flee from their homes, have not yet returned there.

Using the aggression as a pretext, members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army committed heinous crimes, including the kidnapping and murder of Serbs for body parts. Many of these criminals are still at large.

❗️ No NATO representative has been called to account. The victims of the aggression were written off as “collateral damage,” which means that they were the civilian casualties of the operations conducted by the United States, Britain and their satellites to attain their geopolitical ambitions.

The US military reluctantly apologised only after several especially horrible murders of civilians had become public knowledge. The question of the NATO allies’ responsibility for the damage they have done to international relations and Yugoslavia remains open.

☝️ The military operation NATO waged against sovereign Yugoslavia more than 20 years ago is a tragedy with lasting and multifaceted consequences.

🎙 A Russian representative delivered a joint statement at the 52nd Session of the UNHRC on the Code of Conduct for HRC Special Procedures that is oftentimes being neglected:

(🇷🇺Russia, 🇨🇳China, 🇧🇾Belarus, 🇨🇺Cuba, 🇰🇵DPRK, 🇮🇷Iran, 🇲🇲Myanmar, 🇳🇮Nicaragua, 🇳🇬Nigeria, 🇸🇩Sudan, 🇸🇾Syria, 🇻🇪Venezuela, 🇿🇼Zimbabwe)

❗️ We are concerned by continuous attempts by some Special Procedures to arbitrarily interpret their mandates. We have witnessed numerous cases of Special Procedures’ involvement in issues that are not only beyond their terms of reference, but also overstep the mandate of the HRC itself.

❗️ This not only distracts them from issues of genuine significance for the HRC, but gravely undermines their credibility. Instead of cooperating constructively with the States, a number of Special Procedures have opted for politicized and inappropriate accusational rhetoric, relying on information from unverified sources, with their actions going far beyond their mandates.

📄 Full statement

🇷🇺 Russia continues to show formidable resilience against the Western sanctions intended to “strangle its economy”.

📈 According to recent Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s report, despite an unprecedented avalanche of restrictions imposed on our country in 2022-2023, the Russian economy is back on the growth trajectory. All thanks to prompt response measures like:

▪️Stabilizing the national currency

▪️Curbing inflation

▪️Substituting key imports

▪️Avoiding external blocking of transactions made within Russia

▪️Replacing the dollar and euro in foreign trade

▪️Lowering income taxes on companies

▪️Implementing preferential loan programmes

▪️Reducing administrative burdens for companies

▪️Allocating additional funds to support basic industries and the most vulnerable groups of citizens

❗️ The more countries realize that the new and transforming world is incompatible with the US-imposed “rules”, the more sanctions will backfire against the “collective West” and its hegemony.

🎙 Statement by a Russian representative at the Conference on Disarmament on nuclear risk reduction:

☢️ From our standpoint, coordination and implementation of practical steps in curbing emerging nuclear threats should be based on the following principles:

1⃣ Any steps in reducing nuclear risks should be incorporated in the process of reassembling the shattered international security architecture.

2⃣ All nuclear powers must not resort to actions that contradict the Joint P5 Statement of January 3, 2022. This includes:

▪️ any attempts to destabilize political and socio-economic situation of other nuclear powers and interfere in their domestic affairs;

▪️ changing and weakening the external security architecture of other nuclear powers.

3⃣ Non-nuclear states, directly involved in implementation of the nuclear doctrines of nuclear-weapon states, should be responsible for fulfilling the agreements reached during the NPT review cycles related to advancing the process of nuclear disarmament.

📄 Full statement

🤔 What good is the Western “rules-based world order”, if the “rules” do not apply to the countries that issue them?

👉 In essence, it’s more like an “ok-when-we-do-it world order”, since its backers fully tolerate actions like:

1⃣ Invading 4 sovereign countries in the 21st century alone.

2⃣ Forcing regime change in “undesirable countries” through military intervention.

3⃣ Openly supporting/orchestrating “color revolutions” in non-allied countries.

4⃣ Sanctioning smaller countries into submission.

5⃣ Utilizing unfair competitive practices on energy markets (aka sabotaging gas pipelines).

6⃣ Believing that the “Western values” are universal and imposing them on others.

❗️ This isn’t a “rules-based world order”, it’s US-led tyranny.

🎙 Постпред России в Женеве Г.М.Гатилов:

☢️ Боеприпасы из обеднённого урана хоть и значительно дешевле, чем их вольфрамовые аналоги, зато гораздо токсичнее. Люди, проживающие в районах, где использовалось данное оружие, подвергаются существенным рискам развития онкологических заболеваний и появления врождённых дефектов у детей.

🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Однако, по логике США и Великобритании, если задействовать данный тип вооружений в отдалённых странах и регионах, то с их долговременных последствиями можно и не считаться. Так было в Персидском заливе, Сербии, Ираке, а теперь, вероятно, будет и на Украине.

❗️ Поставки на Украину вооружений с обеднённым ураном (и тем более их безрассудное применение киевским режимом) станут очередным проявлением западного лицемерия по отношению к жителям этой страны, которые будут подвергнуты дополнительным рискам в попытке США и Великобритании «сэкономить» на поставляемых боеприпасах и сознательно затянуть конфликт.

📄 Читать полностью

🎙 Ambassador Gennady Gatilov:

☢️ Depleted uranium munitions, although much cheaper than their tungsten alternatives, are much more toxic. People living in the areas where these weapons were used are exposed to elevated risks of developing cancer and birth defects in children.

🇺🇸/🇬🇧 However, following the US/UK logic, if this type of weapons is used in remote countries and regions, then their long-term consequences can be ignored. This was the case in the Persian Gulf, Serbia, Iraq, and now, probably, in Ukraine.

❗️ The supply of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine (and their subsequent reckless use by the Kiev regime) will be another manifestation of Western hypocrisy towards the residents of this country, who will be exposed to additional risks so that the US and the UK could "cut corners" on supplied ammunition and deliberately prolong the conflict.

📄 Full statement