Russia agreed on Monday to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) if the Hague-based UN institution rules in favor of Ukraine in a complaint under the Genocide Convention.
If the International Court of Justice “follows the example of Kiev and the collective West, it will forever lose Russia’s confidence,” said Konstantin Kosachev, deputy chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation, the upper house of the Federal Assembly.
“There is no doubt that the decision will be as politicized as possible,” Kosachev said, quoted by Russian agency TASS.
At issue is a complaint by Kiev against Moscow, filed on February 26, 2022, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Moscow justified the invasion in part with accusations of genocide orchestrated by Kiev in Donetsk and Luhansk, in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
Kiev took the case to the International Court of Justice, “categorically denying” the allegation and arguing that its use to justify the invasion violated the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
In March 2022, the ICJ ordered the suspension of military operations, a binding legal decision that Moscow has ignored, pending the court’s decision on whether it has jurisdiction to rule on the case contested by Russia.
“If as a result of the analysis of the case, instead of a legal decision, a complete absurdity is made public, Russia will have to consider the scenario of a withdrawal of jurisdiction” of the International Court of Justice, Kosachev said.
The senator admitted that it was not an “easy legal task” because the ICJ is “one of the most important organs of the UN” and its statute is part of the United Nations Charter.
“There is a gradual collapse of all UN bodies. I say this with sincere regret,” Kosachev wrote on social media, according to TASS.
Russia participated for the first time this Monday in an International Court of Justice hearing on the case at the court’s headquarters in The Hague.
Ukraine will present arguments on Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by 32 countries allied with Ukraine, including Portugal, according to the ICJ calendar.
“For the first time in history, the court has allowed 32 countries of the collective West that support the Kiev regime to participate in the trial at the same time,” criticized the Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation.
Kosachev accused Ukraine of following in the footsteps of Georgia, which “launched legal action against Russia in 2008” under the Convention on Racial Discrimination.
He argued that Ukraine, while referring to the Genocide Convention, is in reality “disputing the legality” of the Russian military operation, “as well as the status of the new Russian territories.”
“It is beyond the jurisdiction of the United Nations court,” he argued.
Following the invasion, Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia, after doing the same to Crimea in 2014.
According to Kosachev, the issue is not about the genocide, but about the Ukrainian intention to set a political precedent at the International Court of Justice.
“The Ukrainian authorities simply had to find a convention in which both Russia and Ukraine would participate simultaneously and on which the International Court of Justice would have the right to make decisions,” he argued.
Source: DN
