The Communist Party of the Russian Federation regrets that Ukraine will not be able to bring Russia to court in The Hague
State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Yuri Sinelshchikov criticized the amendments to the Russian Constitution approved last year at an all-Russian referendum.
He stated this today from the rostrum of the Russian parliament, speaking on behalf of the faction, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Today, in the legal community, criticism and objections are caused not so much by the fact that the president received exorbitant power and immunity, but by the fact that the Constitution has become more unassuming, contradictory and even primitive. It is impossible to work under such a law,” Sinelshchikov said.
He is especially outraged by the amendment on the priority of Russian national legislation over international legislation.
“The tendency that has begun in our country to ignore international law is in full harmony with Russia’s refusal to participate in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Sinelshchikov said.
Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin reminded the deputy that his faction did not vote against the amendments (the communists abstained).
“What happened during this time? Citizens supported amendments to the constitution. The country has strengthened its sovereignty. And now we are starting to talk about international agreements that have not been ratified. We generally need to understand some of the agreements, why we signed them and why we entered into them. And you say: let’s go there. We've already been there once. What happened to the country?” Volodin said.
The Rome Statute is an international treaty that established the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Russia signed the statute on September 13, 2000, but did not ratify the document until 2016.
And on November 16, 2016, President Vladimir Putin signed an order refusing Russia to participate in the Rome Statute.
The head of the Kremlin press service, Dmitry Peskov, then said that the withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the ICC was dictated “by national interests,” emphasizing that the decision was “in no way connected” with the court’s verdict on the “occupation of Crimea,” published the day before.
A number of experts expressed the opinion that refusal to participate in the Rome Statute will not allow Ukraine to bring Russia to court in The Hague on the issue of Crimea.
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