Russia wants to allow the army to ‘protect’ Russians from being tried abroad
Bloomberg reports that
Russia is preparing to authorise the use of its armed forces to “protect” citizens facing arrest or criminal prosecution outside the country. This provision is contained in a draft law published on the parliament’s website.
The document stipulates that military force may be used to protect Russians whose cases are being heard in foreign courts or international tribunals whose jurisdiction Moscow does not recognise. According to the draft, the decision to deploy the army will be taken by the President of the Russian Federation.
Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, stated on 20 March that MPs would consider this bill as a matter of priority. In his words, “the Western justice system has completely discredited itself”.
Bloomberg notes that the practical mechanism for implementing this provision remains unclear. At the same time, the very emergence of such an initiative could become another tool for Moscow to exert pressure on foreign governments.
Political scientist Katerina Shulman of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin believes that the bill appears to be a direct threat to the International Criminal Court and other international and national legal bodies that may hear cases against Russia and Russian officials. According to her, the message from the Kremlin boils down to the fact that if there is an attempt to detain any Russian, Moscow may send in special forces.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in a case concerning war crimes linked to the alleged removal of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. The Hague-based court has also issued warrants for other senior Russian officials in cases related to the war.
Against this backdrop, Western countries have stepped up their scrutiny of the Kremlin’s activities abroad. This includes, in particular, attempts to counter potential Russian sabotage and restrict trade in Russian oil via the so-called shadow fleet.
Moscow-based lawyer Sergei Badamshin stated that he finds it difficult to imagine how such a provision could work in practice. According to him, the principle of reciprocity applies: if one state ceases to respect the sovereignty of others and uses military force to liberate its citizens, other countries may respond in kind by deploying their own armed forces.
Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre in London, believes that such a provision could become an additional lever of political pressure on the part of Moscow.
However, the bill still needs to pass through parliament and be signed by the president to come into force. According to Shulman, the initiative may be aimed not only at external impact but also at a domestic audience. In her view, it helps to simultaneously create a sense of external threat and internal protection within Russian society, as the authorities present themselves as a force that will “stand up” for their citizens.
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