Russia Defies Putin Arrest Warrant by Opening Its Own Case Against ICC

Russia Defies Putin Arrest Warrant by Opening Its Own Case Against ICC
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in the opening ceremony of the Year of Teacher and Mentor via video link in Moscow on March 2, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

Russia’s top investigative body said on Monday it had opened a criminal case against the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor and judges who issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

The move was a symbolic gesture of defiance, three days after the ICC accused Putin and his children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.