There's been a number of new developments including tit-for-tat warnings and threats following the International Criminal Court's (ICC) last Friday issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The most blistering and alarming attack on the Hague-based court this week has been from former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the security council Dmitry Medvedev, who said any attempt to actually arrest Putin would be an act of warning.
First, on Monday he said, "It’s quite possible to imagine a hypersonic missile being fired from the North Sea from a Russian ship at The Hague courthouse." He added as part of the warning: "Everyone walks under God and rockets… Look carefully to the sky..."
In follow-up on Wednesday he said in a video statement posted to Telegram that any "arrest" would surely spark world war 3...
"Let's imagine — obviously this situation which will never be realized — but nevertheless lets imagine that it was realized: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested," Medvedev said.
"What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation," he continued. "And in that case, all our assets — all our missiles et cetera — would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor's office."
Medvedev was responding to Germany saying it plans to cooperate with the ICC and arrest Putin if he were to ever fly to German soil.
Given the ICC doesn't have a police force, any actual attempt to detain Putin would be the decision of a government, so needless to say it could not possibly be enforced. However, it does complicate Putin's ability to travel to European or other capitals which cooperate with the ICC. This also means it could hinder peace efforts in the scenario Putin might choose to personally engage in negotiations or diplomacy in a European city.
It should be recalled amid the media outrage over Medvedev's bombastic words that the Bush administration long ago said something similar... that the US would invade the Hague if a top US official were ever arrested to sent to the ICC:
As for hindering the possibility of peace negotiations further, Kiev has seized on the ICC move, saying it has made negotiations with the Russian leader pretty much impossible.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in the wake of the warrant: now that Putin is "an obvious international criminal" this "directly means there will be no negotiations with the current Russian elite."
