The Office of the President of Ukraine is confident that the International Tribunal against Russia will take place without the participation of Russian President Putin. There they do not see the possibility that he will end up in court.
Deputy Head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Smirnov told about this in an interview with Babel.
"We understand that the tribunal will be in absentia — without Putinʼs participation, but the process can fundamentally change the course of the war. If the former political team had a little more sense in their heads, they should not have sat down at the negotiating table in Minsk, but put pressure on the world to punish the crime of aggression back in 2014. Then maybe we wouldnʼt have escalated this February. Moreover, I believe that such mechanisms hit Putin and the political system of the aggressor country very hard," he said.
According to him, Putin does not leave the country and "sits in his cage." Therefore, it will be extremely difficult to get it from Russia.
When asked about the possible extradition of Putin in exchange for something for Russia, Smirnov emphasized that it is quite simple to change the form of work of the tribunal and take into account the participation of the person involved. Therefore, probably, some exchange mechanism can be tried to come up with.
"But for now we assume that we will not be able to force him to come to the tribunal," he emphasized.
- At the beginning of October, the Verkhovna Rada proposed the creation of a Special International Tribunal for Russiaʼs crimes against Ukraine. The appeal, in particular, is addressed to the UN, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the parliaments and governments of the UN member states.