RUSSIAN FEDERATION SIGNED THE ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL
COURT
September 13, following the President's Decree the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Russian federation Mr. Igor Ivanov signed the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court in New York. This event is very important in
terms of Russia's international prestige and will probably influence the
interior situation as well.
The President's decree is not very much in line with the position of forces
which provide him strongest support. Namely the special services, General
Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court. This decision of the President is
a victory of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but this victory can turn to be
a temporary one. The signing became possible only after the trip of
President Putin to the Millenium Summit held by the United Nations.
Though the current Russian Parliament (State Duma) is known as a
pro-presidential institution we can assume that the ratification process
might be very long and complicated enough. The reason for this might be the
unofficial instruction of President's administration to increase the
duration of this process.
At the same time a number of Rome Statute provisions ease the ratification
process in Russia. First of all the 7-year moratoria on it's activity after
ratification and coming into force. Secondly the absence of retrospective
jurisdiction. This is essential for Russian politicians involved into the
1-st and the 2-nd Chechen campaigns since the crimes against humanity and
war crimes were committed in a period before the Rome Statutes comes into
force.
In this respect the Russian Coalition for an International Criminal Court
will immediately start the campaign for the ratification of the ICC Rome
Statute.
It is hard to estimate the impact of signing on Russia's interior policy and
on character of military campaign in Chechnya. At the same time there is a
strong reason to believe that the obligations taken by Russian authorities
will influence the policy line.
