Boris Johnson: Talks about Putinʼs trial will be relevant after Ukraineʼs victory

Former Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson said that until Ukraine won, there is no point in talking about a tribunal against Putin.

He stated this in an interview with "Babel".

"These are all very interesting debates about bringing Putin to justice, and Iʼm all for that happening, but the most important thing right now is to help Ukraine win. And all the talk about Putin in any court is completely meaningless until Ukraine has won," Johnson added.

According to him, talks about Putinʼs trial will become relevant when there is a different regime in Moscow.

"If we spend time talking about Putin, we are playing his game. We must focus on the needs of Ukraine. Everything else is just a psychological diversion," the politician emphasized.

What are the difficulties with the trial of Putin

Ukraine has been working for more than a year and a half to create a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression and bring Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials to justice there. In order to overcome Putinʼs presidential immunity, as well as for the tribunal to be legitimate, it must be supported by the worldʼs leading democracies, first of all the United States — and they are not against it, but not at all in the format that Ukraine needs.

Ukraine insists on the International Tribunal, and the USA supports an internationalized tribunal, which will be part of the Ukrainian judicial system, but with the involvement of international prosecutors. National courts cannot override the immunity of the head of state, but the US does not want to set a precedent that will lead to an investigation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, international lawyer Philip Sands, one of the authors of the Rome Statute, believes that there will be no precedent, since the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution regarding Ukraine, in which Russiaʼs actions were condemned as an act of aggression, while there was no such document regarding Iraq.