Foreign Ministry commented on Armenia’s decision to accede to the Rome Statute

Russia is counting on an allied settlement of the situation with the possible accession of Armenia to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at the briefing.

“This topic is the subject of discussion during high-level contacts both in Moscow and in Yerevan… Of course, we assume that this issue will be resolved in an allied and mutually acceptable manner,” she said.

Zakharova did not talk about the details of these contacts.

Armenia signed the Rome Statute of the ICC in 1998 but has not ratified it. In 2004, the Constitutional Court of the Republic recognized the obligations of the treaty as contradicting a number of provisions of the 1995 constitution (subsequently changed in 2005 and 2015). The Armenian government applied to the Constitutional Court of the country to retroactively recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC from May 2021 back in December 2022 ., noted Arminfo edition. This, Yerevan believes, will make it possible to call Azerbaijan to “responsibility for war crimes.”

March 24 Constitutional Court of Armenia decidedthat the obligations set out in the Rome Statute of the ICC are in accordance with the country’s fundamental law. As noted TASS And “RIA News”the Russian Foreign Ministry considered Yerevan’s plans to join the Rome Statute to be “absolutely unacceptable” against the backdrop of the issuance of an arrest warrant by the ICC on March 17 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov then said that the decisions of the ICC have no legal force and are void. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev said that this decision would have “monstrous” consequences for international law, and added that “practical value [в этом нет] no”.

March 20 Russian Investigative Committee aroused criminal case against ICC Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and Judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aytala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin also said that these judges should be held accountable.