Russia’s Medvedev warns US against pressing for war crimes court | Russia-Ukraine war News
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says attempts to use courts or tribunals to investigate Russia’s actions in Ukraine would be futile.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the United States that attempts by Western countries to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
“The entire US history since the times of subjugation of the native Indian population represents a series of bloody wars,” Medvedev charged in a long post on his channel on instant messaging service Telegram, citing the US nuclear bombing of Japan during World War II and the war in Vietnam.
“Was anyone held responsible for those crimes? What tribunal condemned the sea of blood spilled by the US there?”
Responding to the US-backed calls for an international tribunal to prosecute the perceived war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, Medvedev rejected it as an attempt by the US “to judge others while staying immune from any trial.”
Nuclear threat
Attempts to use courts or tribunals to investigate Russia’s actions in Ukraine would, Medvedev said, be futile and risk global devastation.
“The idea of punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials is absurd. And potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity,” Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram.
Russia and the United States control about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, with about 4,000 warheads each in their military stockpiles, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 when Putin shifted into the prime minister’s post due to term limits, was widely seen by the West as more liberal compared to his mentor.
In recent months, however, he has made remarks that have sounded much tougher than those issued by the most hawkish Kremlin officials.
US President Joe Biden has described Putin as a war criminal who launched an illegal invasion of Ukraine. The US is supplying arms to Ukraine which says it is fighting for its survival.
Russia says what it calls “a special military operation” is intended to degrade the Ukrainian military and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists. Putin says the US was using Ukraine to threaten Russia.
