By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev early on Monday threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) with the use of a Russian hypersonic missile, amid the issuance of an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin.
"Alas, gentlemen, everyone walks under God and missiles. It is quite possible to imagine the targeted use of an Onyx hypersonic (missile) from a Russian ship in the North Sea against the Hague courthouse,” Medvedev said in a statement on Telegram.
Medvedev claimed that international public law is defective, mainly due to its inefficiency as countries “do not want to implement biased acts of the UN General Assembly, veto decisions of the UN Security Council, or leave various UN institutions."
"The reason is their injustice, which is based on the inadmissibility of coercion by a group of sovereign countries of the same sovereign states. ... A sovereign power cannot exercise jurisdiction over another sovereign power," Medvedev also said.
Medvedev further alleged that ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin will have “monstrous consequences for international law."
"This is the collapse of the foundations, the principles of law. Including the postulates of the inevitability of responsibility.
"Now, no one will go to any international body, everyone will negotiate among themselves. All stupid decisions of the UN and other structures will burst at the seams. The gloomy decline of the entire system of international relations is coming. Trust is gone," he added.
On Friday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
For Kyiv's part, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal hailed the issuance of the arrest warrant for Putin as an "important step towards justice."
Meanwhile, Russia has rejected the decision by the ICC, saying it does not recognize its jurisdiction and considers its decisions "null and void."