Russia’s State Duma moves to criminalize collaboration with ICC

The specialized committees of Russia’s State Duma are working on a series of amendments to current legislation, with an aim to ban the International Criminal Court’s activities in Russia, and to criminalize public calls to enforce its decisions.

The legislative amendment now being drafted speaks about banning international organizations and their activities if their work is directed “against the Russian Federation and its citizens.”

At the same time, the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has encouraged legislators to consider criminalizing any collaboration with the ICC or public calls to enforce its decisions on Russian territory.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and a member of his administration Maria Lvova-Belova, in connection with unlawful deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia.