MOSCOW: The Kremlin said today that it considered International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov to be absurd, adding that Russia did not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
The Court yesterday issued arrest warrants for Shoigu, Russia’s former defence minister, and for top Russian general Gerasimov for alleged crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Shoigu is now secretary of Russia’s Security Council. Gerasimov is chief of the Russian army’s general staff.
“We do not recognise the jurisdiction of this court,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“We are not members of the relevant statutes. Accordingly, we do not recognise these orders. Moreover, we consider it quite absurd, like the last two warrants that concerned the head of state and our children’s ombudsman.”