The Nuremberg Trial of 1946, the Tokyo War Crimes Trials of 1948, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (NV) – are the just reactions of the world community to the crimes committed against innocent civilians and entire nations.
Through the fault of government officials, generations will remember the bloody atrocities committed with fear. For millions of [our] contemporaries, the names [of these government officials] have become a terrible reminder of the deaths of their loved ones, bombed cities and murdered residents who lost their homes and their homeland.
On February 4, 2015 the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] asked the International Criminal Court [ICC] in The Hague (the Netherlands) to initiate prosecution of senior officials of the Russian Federation and the leaders of the ‘DNR’ and ‘LNR’ terrorist organizations, which will be determined by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Who might find themselves on the docket of the International Tribunal for Ukraine and what for?
1. Russian President Vladimir Putin – for planning, and the direct supervision of, attacks on defenseless Ukrainian cities, villages, dwellings, buildings that can hardly be called military targets, as well as an act of aggression which caused the deaths and injuries of Ukrainian civilians, damage to civilian objects in order to achieve military superiority on Ukrainian territories.
2-3. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin – for promoting international decision-making to conceal the aggressive and criminal intentions of the Russian leadership;
4. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu – for direct supervision of the offensive on defenseless Ukrainian cities, villages, dwellings, buildings that can hardly be called military targets, and which are not the objectives of Ukrainian cities, villages, dwellings, buildings, as well as an act of aggression, which caused the deaths and injuries of Ukrainian civilians, damage to civilian objects in order to achieve military superiority on the Ukrainian territories; for the use of weapons, ammunition, equipment, and methods of warfare that are the subject to a comprehensive ban.
5-6. Prime Minister of the Russian Federation [RF] Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the RF Sergei Nazarov – for the takeover of property on the occupied territories and illegal removal of Ukrainian enterprises to the territory of Russia.
7-8. Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Aleksandr Bortnikov, Head of the GRU of the General Staff Igor Sergun – for the establishment and supervision of operations by special subversive units on the occupied regions of Ukraine who were sent to commit terrorist acts, intentional homicides, assassinations, mutilations, cruel treatment and torture of people;
9-10. Agents of the RF intelligence services Igor Strelkov-Girkin and Igor Bezler – for the organization and command of terrorist armed detachments that attacked civilian targets, and attacked defenseless settlements with small arms, artillery, and missiles.
The list of war criminals is by no means final and we will make additions to it next week. An investigation entrusted to the Prosecutor of the International Court will show the final line-up of inmates.
The hidden invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, mercenaries, volunteer soldiers and subversives, the armament of terrorists, the shot-down MH 17 civilian airliner, mass extermination of civilians, including the killing of people on the bus near Volnovakha, the shellings of Mariupol and Kramatorsk – these are all the reasons for the international tribunal over [state] officials of the Putin’s regime.
According to an international law expert, Nikolai Gnatovskiy, if Putin is found guilty of some war crimes on the territory of Ukraine, he would never be able to leave the boundaries of his home country. This is currently the case with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is [currently] confined in [the Republic of] Sudan. Complete isolation until the end of days. Or [his] surrender and imprisonment for a period [of time] specified in the judgment of the ICC.
Among other things, The Hague will not help a country that does not compile an evidence base of war crimes on its own territory, does not take the initiative and does not cooperate with international justice organizations.
