Russia considers “absolutely unacceptable” Armenia’s possible accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has already warned the Armenian authorities of the “extremely negative consequences” for bilateral relations in the event of such a step. About this with reference to sources of the Russian Foreign Ministry report state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine. According to statutory documents, countries that have ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC (there are currently 123) are obliged to arrest Putin if he appears on their territory. The Kremlin called the arrest warrant issued “illegal” and “legally void”, threatening to declare war on the country on whose territory the Russian president would be detained.
On March 24, the Constitutional Court of Armenia recognized the obligations enshrined in the Rome Statute as corresponding to the country’s constitution. The next step should be ratification in Parliament.
Armenian authorities point out that they launched the ratification process at the end of 2022 in order to bring Azerbaijani leaders to account before the ICC for war crimes committed during the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia is acting as a peacekeeping party in the conflict and, according to a number of experts, this is one of the main deterrents preventing Azerbaijan from launching a large-scale military operation against the ‘Armenia.
Last Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused The Azerbaijani army in violation of the ceasefire agreements in Nagorno-Karabakh concluded in 2020 between Yerevan and Baku under the mediation of Moscow. As stated in the department’s message, a unit of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces “crossed the line of contact between the parties in the Shusha region, occupied a height … and went to the technical equipment of ” . The Russian side demanded that the Azerbaijani army return to its former positions.
