President Vladimir Putin withdrew Russia’s signature from the founding statute of the International Criminal Court, in a further sign of Moscow’s displeasure with the western-backed international order.
The Russian leader issued a decree to withdraw from the Rome Statute, which Russia signed in 2000 but never ratified, on the grounds that “the court has not justified the hopes placed on it and has not become an independent, authoritative organ of international justice”, the foreign ministry said.
Moscow’s decision comes a day after the court, based in The Hague, published a report stating that Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 amounted to an “occupation” equivalent to “international armed conflict” between the two countries.