World “is smaller” for Putin after Armenia ratifies membership of the ICC

A Former Soviet republic today ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC and joined the countries that can detain the Kremlin leader.

“The world is getting smaller for the Kremlin autocrat”, stressed Von der Leyen, in a reference to Putin, through a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an international arrest warrant against the Russian leader last March, finding him responsible for committing war crimes by illegally deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.

The Kremlin today considered the decision by Armenia, Moscow’s historic ally, to ratify membership of the ICC to be a mistake.

“We doubt that Armenia’s accession to the Rome Statute is correct from the point of view of bilateral relations. We continue to believe that this is a wrong decision,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters.

Relations between Armenia and Russia are going through a period of tension, with Yerevan accusing Moscow of having abandoned the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh during Azerbaijan’s military operation almost two weeks ago, something the Kremlin denies.

In recent months, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has approached the West, hoping for help, even organizing military exercises with the United States.

The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced on Thursday that it will dissolve and that the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by January 1, 2024.

The announcement was made after Azerbaijan carried out a military offensive to regain full control of the separatist region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh lay down their arms and the separatist government be dismantled.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought two wars, in the early 1990s and in 2020, for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, a mountainous region whose population is mostly Armenian and which separated from Azerbaijan more than 30 years ago.

At the end of the short war in which, in autumn 2020, Azerbaijan recovered territories from this breakaway region, Baku and Yerevan concluded a ceasefire promoted by Russia.

Tensions intensified this year, when Baku announced, on April 23, that it had installed a first road checkpoint at the entrance to the Latchin corridor, the only axis that connects Armenia to the separatist enclave, already subject to an embargo that caused shortages. of essential goods and electricity cuts.

Read Also: Kremlin criticizes Armenia for ratifying membership of the ICC