The State Duma of the aggressor country, Russia, adopted in the second and third readings a government bill allowing the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to protect Russian citizens in the event of their arrest or criminal prosecution abroad. TASS propagandists reported this on May 13.
According to the document, the illegitimate President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will be able to attract the army to protect Russians from persecution by foreign and international courts if such structures operate without the participation of Moscow.
The law also provides that, by decision of the president, Russian government agencies will be able to take additional measures to protect Russian citizens in the event of arrest or prosecution in other countries.
Experts linked the initiative to Putin’s order from the International Criminal Court and discussions about creating a special tribunal against Russia for the war in Ukraine. Previously, Moscow has already refused to recognize decisions of international courts whose jurisdiction is not based on agreements with the Russian Federation. Some analysts consider the new law to be more of a political signal, while others recall that similar decisions were made shortly before the annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
If the law is signed by Putin, it will come into force 10 days after its official publication.
Ukraine has already responded to the document. The speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Georgy Tikhy, said that the law adopted by the State Duma demonstrates “the real face of the aggressive regime” in Moscow and actually legalizes the possibility of new military interventions under the pretext of “protecting Russians,” he was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the decision “aggressive lawlessness” and said that Russia is turning aggression into the norm of state policy. According to him, the law is especially indicative against the backdrop of the launch of the Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
“It is appropriate to recall that, addressing the Reichstag in February 1938, [лидер нацистской Германии Адольф] Hitler justified his aggressive plans for the occupation of the Sudetenland with essentially identical arguments – “the terrible living conditions of German compatriots in Czechoslovakia.” It seems that Russian parliamentarians were inspired by those times when creating this legislative act,” Tikhy suggested.
He emphasized that such laws could become additional evidence for an international investigation into the actions of the Russian leadership.
