Russia needs certain guarantees from Armenia regarding the ICC, says Kremlin

By Fatime Letifova

Russia needs certain guarantees from this country regarding Armenia's accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

According to Azernews, this was told by the press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov.

The Russian official has said that this issue will be resolved only after that.

Recall that Armenia has formally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC). Besides, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Armenia had taken a “wrong decision” when its parliament voted in October to ratify the ICC’s Rome statute, and the Russian foreign ministry has called the move an “unfriendly step”.

Armenia is home to a permanent Russian military base and is part of the Moscow-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which consists of several ex-Soviet republics.

An independent analyst says that Armenia hoped that by joining the ICC and making such a sensitive step for Russia, it could receive security guarantees from the west. However, apparently it has strained its ties with Moscow without receiving real security guarantees from the west.

Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999 but did not ratify it, citing contradictions with the country’s constitution.

The constitutional court said in March that those obstacles had been removed after Armenia’s adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

Last November, Yerevan formally deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome statute.