The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Armenian Ambassador to Moscow Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who was “made a harsh representation” due to “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by the Armenian leadership in recent days. This is stated in the telegram channel of the ministry.
The Russian department called the launch of the process of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the trip of the wife of the Prime Minister of Armenia Anna Akopyan to Kiev “with the transfer of humanitarian aid to the Nazi regime,” as well as the Armenian-American military “unfriendly steps” The exercises will take place from September 11 to 20.
In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed a note of protest, in which it pointed out the “unacceptability of offensive statements” by the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan addressed to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. The Ministry also conveyed to the Ambassador “concerns” about the detention in Armenia of pro-Russian blogger Mikael Badalyan and Sputnik Armenia columnist Ashot Gevorkyan.
Earlier, Simonyan called “absurd” Zakharova’s words that the blockade of the Lachin corridor is “a consequence of Armenia’s recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.” A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry responded that the public rhetoric of the Armenian authorities “is on the verge of some kind of, you know, something similar to rudeness,” and Simonyan said that “he is not going to answer some secretary.”
Last week, the Armenian government sent a legislative initiative to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC to parliament. “The document is at the discussion stage. Let’s discuss and understand what the benefits are, and there are many of them, since war crimes have been and are being committed against our country. We need this, our country needs this,” Alen Simonyan said on September 6. According to the speaker of parliament, the treaty is likely to be ratified.
On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. According to the court, they are “allegedly responsible” for the deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
After issuing an arrest warrant for Putin, the Investigative Committee opened cases regarding involving a known innocent to criminal liability and preparing to attack a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection. As a result, three ICC judges — Karim Ahmad Khan, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Tomoko Akane — were put on the wanted list.