TASS/. Russia believes that Armenia does not stand to gain any benefits from signing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and thereby coming under the Netherlands-based ICC’s jurisdiction, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin said in an interview with TASS.
“The Russian position, as before, is that Armenia’s accession to the Rome Statute, first of all, will not provide the benefits that some politicians are talking about here. It is evident to us that the ICC has completely discredited itself with its politicized decisions that contravene international law. Moreover, this step, in our view, does not correspond to the friendly nature of our bilateral relations, as we have told the Armenian side. This decision does not contribute to strengthening Russian-Armenian cooperation,” he noted.
On October 3, the Armenian parliament voted to ratify the Rome Statute, a move which Moscow described as absolutely unfriendly. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin stated that the ICC, which issued arrest warrants for some members of Russia’s top leadership some time ago, has nothing to do with justice; it is a politicized pro-Western structure executing orders for the criminal prosecution of figures deemed undesirable by the West. Galuzin emphasized that the ICC arrest warrants are “absolutely legally null and void.”
In turn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Yerevan is not changing its foreign policy orientation. He noted that the issue of ratifying the Rome Statute is not directed against Russia and that the move was initiated before the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. In Pashinyan’s view, the Rome Statute provides an opportunity to regulate relations with individual countries on a bilateral basis.
