"We don't care about your tribunal." What is the Kremlin's "fearlessness" based on?

The title of this material contains the words of the vice president of the Russian State Duma, Peter Tolstoy. They were broadcast by French television at the end of January. In the live broadcast, only Tolstoy "retaliated" to the experts and the presenter: in a brazen, provocative way, he commented on all accusations of Russian crimes in Ukraine. Even those who are by supported by video evidence.

One of the experts, considering the superiority of the Russian guest, expressed his desire to see Tolstoy together with Putin on the dock in The Hague. Just before the broadcast, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the creation of an International Tribunal for the Crimes of Russia and Belarus against Ukraine. Tolstoy answered all this in his distinctive style: "We don't care about your tribunal...".

Such ostentatious disregard for a possible international legal process by the Russians is a bluff, or is this trust objectively justified? What will happen if the top leaders of Russia and Belarus are caught and convicted, will they face the fate of Nazi criminals?

It is now known for sure that Putin and his henchmen will not be hanged, and even if they are convicted, they will serve their sentence in conditions that are, without exaggeration, very comfortable.

 

Ad hoc tribunal

 

The first proposals for the creation of an international judicial body that would investigate the crimes of official Moscow appeared as early as March 2022 - after the International Criminal Court began investigating a series of war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.

But this judicial body deals with specific crimes in its work, and to accuse, for example, Putin of approving murders and rapes of Buča residents, is absolutely not within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The current master of the Kremlin did not personally kill or rape anyone in Bucha, but it will be

"About 29,000 incidents of crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court have been recorded, but how can you bring the top management of the Russian Federation to justice?" asked Yevgen Zaharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, in an interview with Glavcom.

In order to overcome such a situation (when it is extremely clear to everyone who is guilty, and it is impossible to punish), it is necessary to create a special international ad hoc tribunal, like the one in The Hague, which could bring the Russian leadership to justice for international crimes – genocide, crime of aggression, war and crime against humanity.

For almost a year now, many Ukrainian and international politicians and public figures have been talking about the need to create an international court for Russia's crimes against Ukraine. The idea of creating a special tribunal for punishment for the crime of aggression against Ukraine was heard in the decisions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from April 2022. A little later, it was joined by the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO, as well as several European parliaments and governments.

The international organization Avaaz, which is actively engaged in collecting signatures around the world for various reasons (from the protection of human rights to climate change), has already collected 1.87 million votes for the creation of such a court. But it is almost impossible to create a tribunal like The Hague.  

 

"Undoubtedly, Putin, Shoigu, Medvedev, etc. should be tried by the Hague Tribunal. But in order for it to have the necessary legitimacy (that is, for the court's decisions to be recognized throughout the world), its creation must be approved by the UN Security Council and given an appropriate mandate. But the UN Security Council will not be able to do this for one simple reason: Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will impose a veto - and that's it," Zakharov explains.

Hypothetically, the UN General Assembly may decide to create an international court for crimes committed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, but this is only hypothetical. This will require the support of two-thirds of the votes of the member states of the organization, and Russia has enough financial leverage to influence the countries of the "Third World" and thus obtain the appropriate voting result.

However, if the creation of a court for Russia fails at the United Nations level, it can be done at the European level.

 

"There is the European Union, there is the Council of Europe. You can write the appropriate statute and create a court. Yes, it will be regional, European. But, in the end, Russia commits its crimes in Europe", Aleksandr Pavlichenko, executive director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights, commented to Glavcom.

 

The resolution of the European Parliament adopted on January 19, 2023, calling for the creation of the International Tribunal for the Crimes of Russia and Belarus against Ukraine, indicates that Europe is fully prepared for such a development. In principle, why would such a tribunal, albeit in an abbreviated format, not be considered international?

 

Woe to the defeated

 

But until Putin's regime falls and he himself is captured, any plans for international justice are just plans.

"Nazi Germany was defeated, and the victors judged the vanquished. A special statute was written for the Nuremberg Tribunal, everything was done quite quickly - a number of people were convicted and punished, and certain organizations were recognized as criminals. Of course, Putin and his associates will be judged only after our victory. The question is when exactly," says Zaharov.

Already in October 1946, many lawyers and historians criticized the Nuremberg Court - they say that it is the justice of the victors and that it is not known whether they would be recognized as criminals, if the situation were different - that even a just peace was concluded and that there was no indisputable traditions.

When the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was created in The Hague, attention was focused on the fact that it would not be a trial of the defeated - war crimes would be considered, regardless of whose side those who committed them were. But, in fact, this judicial body, which worked for an unprecedented long time, even 24 years (from 1993 to 2017), was quite biased. The list of accused included: 101 Serbs, 38 Croats, 17 Bosniaks, 9 Albanians, 3 Montenegrins and 2 Macedonians.

It is interesting that during the creation of the Hague Tribunal for Yugoslavia, despite the traditionally warm relations between Serbia and Russia, the latter had no obstacles when voting in the UN Security Council.

 

"In 1993 It was a completely different Russia in 2010," notes Zakharov.

The results of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, which operated from 1994 to 2015 and investigated the genocide against the Tutsi people, carried out at the behest of the Hutu government (a people that make up 84 percent of Rwanda's population), were also decided in advance, because after the intervention of international peacekeepers power in conflict, Hutu government overthrown. In general, all these international courts worked according to the "hard losers" principle.

 

Prison settlements

 

Now let's imagine that after the military defeat of Russia, its former president Putin does not end his life by suicide in his bunker, but appears together with his accomplices before the International Court in The Hague. Who will, quite possibly, get a UN mandate - the new Russian government, let's hope, won't prevent it. And what's next?

Long years of trials and appeals. The defendants, even if they serve their sentence, face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. How it was according to the results of the work of the Hague Tribunals from the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

"In Rwanda, hundreds of war criminals tried by local courts have been sentenced to death. And the top, the main villains tried by the international court, got life imprisonment or 20 years," says Pavlichenko.

In the Netherlands, where war criminals convicted by the Hague Tribunal are serving their sentences, the conditions are very comfortable. Not every hotel can boast of such. Internet, SAT TV, possibility to walk outdoors during the day, gym. Apart from three meals a day, prisoners can cook whatever they want. Seven days a month is an opportunity for meetings with relatives and friends.

In civilized Europe, the idea that deprivation of liberty is in itself a rather terrible punishment for a criminal has long taken root. But will Ukrainians see this as a fair punishment for Putin and his supporters?

But in any case, the ice has been broken. Now the idea that the Council of Europe will become the main driver of the creation of the International Criminal Court of

 

We are waiting.