The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Netherlands) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Formally, for Ukrainian children kidnapped in the occupied territories during the war in Ukraine. Some Ukrainian officials claim that there are about one and a half hundred thousand such children. Mainly from South and Southeast regions of Ukraine. First of all, the city of Mariupol, which was occupied in the first months of the war (almost half a million people lived there before the war). However, child abduction began much earlier than 2022. February 24 Russian authorities have been developing the process since 2014, when Moscow-backed separatists of the Donbass region started an armed rebellion in two areas of Ukraine.
It is interesting that the ICC investigating war crimes in Ukraine has so far reacted skeptically and has not confirmed, for example, such high-sounding acts as “genocide”, “deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure” or “military crimes in occupied territories”. However, child abduction or “transformation into another nationality” (as the Moscow propagandists like to call the problem more mildly) turned into official suspicions with international arrest warrants p. Putin and the “ombudsman” of Russian children’s rights Maria Belova-Lvova.
After hearing this news, the more alert observers did not take long to remember one protocol plot of the propaganda Russian television, which shows how Mr. Belova-Lvova presents Mr. Putin for his activities, thanks him for the opportunity (the master of the Kremlin even signed two decrees on this topic) for the Russians to “save” and adopt Ukrainian children, admits that she adopted one child herself, and Mr. Putin nods his head approvingly.
However, it was probably not this plot, but much more serious things – such as the aforementioned decrees – that prompted the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for the head of a nuclear state for the first time in history (there were about thirty such warrants in total). And approximately 160-170 appeals by Ukrainian citizens to the United Nations (UN) regarding specific facts.
Vasilijus Nebenzia, the representative of Russia at the UN, tried to respond to the news, saying that the Russians are ready to return the children if they are approached accordingly and safe living conditions are ensured. But the problem is that there is no register that clearly indicates how many children have been taken out of Ukraine since the beginning of 2014.
Mrs. Belova-Lvova also sprung into action after announcing on Wednesday that several dozen children – Russian citizens – were brought back to their homeland from Syria (which Russian aviation has leveled to the ground for several years) through the efforts of her organization.
Mr. Putin has it harder because of his status. The arrest warrant makes him a leper politician, with whom not everyone, even the leader of a small country, will want to shake hands. Xi Jinping, the leader of the Communist Party of China and the country, was very welcome in Moscow this week because of this, because he had to break through the barriers of isolation. Many Mr. Russian politicians opposed to Putin have already called this visit “a visit of a sovereign to a vassal”. After the West imposed sanctions on Moscow due to the war in Ukraine, Russia became economically and will become even more dependent on China in the future.
Although such political scientists as Andrejus Piontkovskis talked about the threat of Russia joining p. Putin will fall into the lap of China, these predictions are becoming a reality in all their ugliness just now. The leaders of Russia and China signed fourteen bilateral political documents. Among them there are almost exotic ones. For example, due to the joint production of television production, closer cooperation between the TASS and Xinhua news agencies, the joint exploitation of the resources of the Russian Far East and East Siberia, the cooperation of state-controlled enterprises…
Mr. Xi said in Moscow that he hoped the Russian people would re-elect Mr. Putin. And left wishing his partner to “protect himself”.
True, Mr. In the Kremlin, Xi apparently did not promise to supply Chinese-made weapons (Russia is currently sending T-55 and T-55 tanks developed in the 1950s to the front in Ukraine), but in the context of the war in Ukraine, he openly sided with Moscow.
I wonder how the sympathizers of Chinese communists in Lithuania – Ramūnas Karbauskis, Saulius Skvernelis or Gitanas Nausėda – will react to this? Also supporters of official Beijing in Europe…
The US commented quite harshly on the meetings in Moscow. For the supply of weapons to Russia, Washington has threatened severe blows to the Chinese economy.
And Mr. Xi also promises to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after his visit to Moscow. Don’t you have anything to say?
Rytas Stasel
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