UK Orchestrated ICC Arrest Order Against Putin - Moscow

British authorities' fingerprints are all over the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, and the details of the story play out like a cheap mystery novel, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

"On February 21, 2023, ICC Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was replaced in the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber by Costa Rican (and Oxford graduate) Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, who was eager to serve the West. After this occurred, the British lobby gained the upper hand in the chamber. But a personal factor was needed - absolute control over the decisions of the ICC by the British," Zakharova wrote in a long, detective story-style post on her Telegram page on Thursday.

According to the spokeswoman, in an interesting "coincidence," the same day, "the brother of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, former member of British parliament Imran Ahmad Khan," who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a minor and imprisoned in 2022 and sentenced to 18 months in jail, "was released from an English prison ahead of schedule, serving only half his term."

"The next step was logical and predictable. On February 22, literally the next day, Prosecutor Khan's appeal [on Putin and Lvova-Belova's arrest warrants, ed.] was sent to the Pretrial Chamber with a request for approval. One cannot help but get the impression that Karim Khan himself did not believe London and was waiting for confirmation of the promised release of his pedophile brother from prison," Zakharova wrote.

But nothing happened, with the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber hesitating.

"Then," the spokeswoman noted, "London organized a donor conference for the ICC and set a date - March 20, transparently hinting to the Hague that if it wants to see British financial contributions, results will be necessary. Judges are easy to buy. On March 17, four days after the announcement of the donor conference and three days before it was held," the ICC issued its warrants against Putin and Lvova-Belova.

Characterizing the chain of events as a mystery ripped straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, only written by a far less talented "beginner author," Zakharova suggested that the ICC's decisions on the Russian president's arrest constitute what can only be described as a "cheap script made using British money." "Except now the ICC themselves are on a criminal wanted list," the spokeswoman summed up.

Political Circus Behind Putin's 'Arrest Warrant'

The ICC issued "warrants of arrest" against Putin and Lvova-Belova on March 17, accusing them of "the crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation" from February 2022 onward.

Moscow dismissed the "absurd" charges, stressing that Russia is not a party to the court's statute, "and bears no obligations under it." Russian officials and lawmakers went on to liken the court's "warrants" to toilet paper and suggested that the ICC judges were the ones who should be arrested.

Regarding the "deportation" charges themselves, Russia has made no secret of its efforts to evacuate civilians, including children, from front line areas threatened by Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks, and accused Washington and its allies of turning a blind eye to the deaths and injury of over 400 children by Ukrainian forces, including using HIMARS rockets and other NATO caliber weapons.

Independent media investigations, including by The Grayzone, have further revealed that the "deported" minors were often sent from Donetsk and Lugansk to areas deeper inside Russia by their own parents to reduce the danger of their children being killed by Ukrainian shelling or by ultranationalist battalion enforcers targeting "Russian collaborators."

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