The Kremlin said Thursday that a decision by Armenia to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, would be “extremely hostile.”
Russia has repeatedly warned Armenia against ratifying The Hague-based court’s founding treaty, known as the Rome Statute. Its adherents are expected to make the arrest if Putin steps foot in their territory.
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The Kremlin’s latest warning came as the Armenian parliament gears up to vote whether to ratify the Rome Statute next week.
“These kinds of decisions are extremely hostile in our view,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said it was “difficult to wrap our heads around the decision” taken by the ICC.
Tensions have been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which announced its dissolution on Thursday following a lightning military operation by Baku.
In March, the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
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Nearly half of Nagorno-Karabakh population flees Azerbaijan’s control
German foreign minister urges Azerbaijan to allow international observers in Karabakh
