MINSK. April 4 (Interfax) - The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president will damage the organization's credibility among the countries of the so-called global South, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin said.
"What effect will this have on other countries? If we're talking not about the Western world but about the countries of the so-called global South, I am sure the effect will be the exact opposite to what Western capitals expected. I am sure the ICC's credibility in the eyes of the countries in the global South will crumble, and naturally, they'll seek to distance themselves from that puppet Western institution as much as possible," the Belarusian state news agency BelTA quoted Naryshkin as saying in Minsk on Tuesday.
On March 17, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova as part of a case opened into "unlawful population transfers" from areas of Ukraine controlled by Russia, "in prejudice of Ukrainian children". Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia views "the very approach to the matter as outrageous and unacceptable" and said that Russia does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction.