Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Hakob Arshakyan said that the country's ruling party "has no intention or desire" to arrest Vladimir Putin on the warrant of the International Criminal Court.
“As recently as today, we signed an agreement with another country, according to which the Rome Statute will not affect our bilateral relations. Such a settlement can also be with Russia. But this is just one of the options. There are other options. One thing is clear: we have heard the concerns expressed by the Russian Federation, and I think that we will be able to ensure that the further process related to the Rome Statute does not damage the strategic relations between Armenia and Russia,” Arshakyan said in an interview with Armenianpress. .
The vice speaker emphasized that Armenia decided to accede to the Rome Statute back in December, when there was no talk of an ICC warrant. The reason for this was the actions committed by the Azerbaijani military in September. Then Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the death of 49 Armenian soldiers in battles on the border with Azerbaijan. According to Arshakyan, this decision of the Constitutional Court of the country does not require anyone to be arrested and does not find anyone guilty. The vice speaker also noted that the Armenian government in December could not predict "the likelihood and content of specific decisions of the International Criminal Court in March." He suggested that Russia sign a separate agreement that would exclude the influence of the Rome Statute on its relations with Armenia.
On March 17, the International Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russia's Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. As stated in the ICC statement, they “are allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of the population (children) and illegal transfer of the population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation.”
