Former Russian President issues ominous threat against the ICC after Putin's arrest warrant

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Monday 20 March that Russia could strike the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a hypersonic missile as a result of its decision to issue an arrest warrant for current President Vladimir Putin.

Former Russian President threatens the ICC

Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, said in a statement on his Telegram channel that should the ICC try Putin for war crimes, 'the consequences for international law will be monstrous'. Medvedev wrote:

The ICC judges got excited in vain. 'Look', they said, 'we’re brave, we did not crap ourselves to raise a hand against the largest nuclear power'.

Read more ⋙ Vladimir Putin’s arrest warrant comes with a worrying risk as expert reveals it could ‘isolate’ the leader

He continued, referring to a naval cruise missile:

Alas, gentlemen, everyone walks under God and rockets. It is quite possible to imagine the targeted use of a hypersonic carrier from the North Sea from a Russian ship at the Hague courthouse.

Medvedev added:

And the court is just a miserable international organization, not the population of a NATO country. Therefore, the war will not start. They will be afraid. And no one will regret. So, citizens of the judge, carefully look into the sky…

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Response from Russian TV commentators

It comes amid other threats from prominent Russian state TV propagandists in response to the ICC's decision. The editor-in-chief of Russian media organisation RT, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on her Telegram channel:

I'd like to see the country that arrests Putin according to The Hague's ruling. Eight minutes later. Or whatever the flight time to its capital is.

She is seemingly referring to the amount of time it would take for a Russian nuclear missile to reach a Western capital, which is a popular topic of discussion on Russian state TV.

TV host Vladimir Solovyov, from the Russia 1 channel that frequently features Simonyan, outrageously claimed that The Hague, the city in which the ICC is located in the Netherlands, 'should be nominating Vladimir Putin for the Nobel Peace Prize because of these children'. He said, according to Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda:

We in Russia have given children from Donbas shelter, food and education. And you couldn't even accept Ukrainian refugees humanely in the European Union.

Sources used:

Newsweek: 'Russia Threatens to Blow Up ICC With Hypersonic Missile'

Newsweek: 'Russian State TV Figures React to Putin's Arrest Warrant'

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