Who will not be joking in Russia: the expert explained who will answer for the crimes Kremlin in Ukraine/Getty Images
In the first interview of the “genocide” series, we touched upon the legal nuances of interpreting Russian crimes in Ukraine and how to punish all those responsible. In the same text, we will specifically tell who and how exactly in Muscovy will be responsible for crimes against Ukraine.
How to hold Putin personally accountable, whether immunity will protect him, who will sit in the dock among the entourage of the Russian dictator, whether there will be a media component in the production, how the Russian society will be punished – the Regionals Center Human expert Ekaterina Rashevskaya continues to tell the Channel 24 website exclusively.
Why Putin does nothing help
We will detail the mechanism for bringing Putin personally to justice. Will immunity help him escape punishment?
No, nothing will help him, fortunately. Article 27 of the Rome Charter expressly provides that any immunities and privileges of officials do not prevent them from being held accountable for international crimes.
The issue may be whether a special tribunal will be set up to investigate Russian aggression. Will Putin have immunity within its framework and where will this immunity come from? There will no longer be the Rome Charter, but a special agreement concluded under this lawsuit. However, even in this case, as most theorists of international law confirm, the Russian leader will not have any immunity there either.
Whoever the person who committed the international crime may be, he will still bear responsibility for it. All we need is for the Kremlin dictator to live to see his own trial. For if he dies prematurely, no decisions can be taken against him. There have been enough cases in history when the accused person died and thus nullified all lawsuits against him.
Rashevskaya explained that Putin can avoid punishment only in case of death/Photo by Getty Images
Personally, I would insist that the SBU, in the event of Putin's premature death, still open a case against him and carry out all the necessary investigative actions, then for the case to go to court, who in turn will declare Putin guilty.
Then it will be possible to close the case in connection with the death of the perpetrator. Legal fixation of the guilt of the owner of the Kremlin is very important from the point of view of Ukrainian historical memory.
Naryshkin will take the rap for them in the dock. Shoigu will probably shoot himself, Putin will die just like that, and he will sit in the place of the accused in the courtroom. Most likely, Naryshkin will be accompanied by Matvienko.
Each person in Moscow responsible for the actions of the dictator will sit in the dock separately in his own case. They will all pass through the ISS. In addition, there will be a special tribunal where aggression will be added to their long list of crimes. If genocide is proven, the sentences are likely to be life.
Putin will have to answer for the genocide in Ukraine/Photo by Getty Images
And if they do not prove the existence of genocidal intent (dolus specialis), then they will face up to 30 years behind bars. Given the age of the defendants, such a sentence can be identified with a life sentence, in fact.
The fate of the propagandists
What awaits Russian media workers? In particular, Skabeeva, Popov and other well-known figures of the Kremlin media front?
I look forward to the media case in the trial against Russia. This has already happened in Germany, Rwanda, and now it will happen in Russia too. It simply cannot not be, I am absolutely sure of this.
The Russian media has consistently fomented hostility for decades. Saying that we, as a nation, do not exist, that we belong to the “Russian world”. It was they who inspired all these things to their own citizens, making them stupid. And they convinced the society of the correctness of the murders of Ukrainians.
In the end, it all resulted in calls for female Russian soldiers to commit violence against Ukrainian women, kill our children and inflict other inhuman suffering on our citizens. Mention should also be made of the need to try Russian teachers for the way in which they represent Ukraine in their textbooks and in their lessons.
All media workers of the aggressor country will also cry in the courtroom, being in the appropriate place. They will try to justify themselves by saying that they do not have freedom of speech in their country. And consequently, their actions were regulated in advance according to manuals.
Nevertheless, the execution of a criminal order, according to the same Roman Charter, does not exempt from responsibility.
Responsibility of Russians
Is there any mechanism to ensure that all Russians are held collectively accountable?
The fact is that collective reprisals have been prohibited since the signing of the UN Charter. Moreover, a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights has just been published. This report dealt with the fact that not only collective responsibility is unacceptable, but even collective sanctions. Because they do not affect the top, but the entire state as a whole.
Therefore, collective responsibility, as such, has no legal form. At the same time, everyone is interested in this issue. Because if the population is still tolerant of Putin's actions, if it itself brought such a person to power, if they all still tolerate him, then why should we treat them with some kind of reverence?
< p>This is, if you look at the situation through the prism of moral, and not international legal. In international criminal and humanitarian law there is no principle “you to me, and I to you”. I mean, you messed me up and I'll do the same to you. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth does not work in modern international law. As much as we don't want to.
According to the expert, not only Putin will be punished for the atrocities in Ukraine/Photo by Getty Images
However, from time to time, reflections on this topic come to the surface in discussions between lawyers. Moreover, it is the collective criminal responsibility of the people.
Literally 10 years ago, a well-known lawyer in criminal law Gerhard Wehrle proposed the concept of international criminal responsibility of the people, which was picked up by the Ukrainian international lawyer Volodymyr Antipenko. To simplify as much as possible, the point is that the entire nation will bear the burden of reparations and will continue to suffer from the sanctions, which will be extended.
This is actually the whole problem of the concept. It contradicts not only international criminal law, but also criminal law as such in its classical sense. The individual must be responsible for his own actions. This is the essence of the principle of individual criminal responsibility.
In international law there is no such category as people. Just as there is no clearly defined concept of a nation. Who and on what basis will we hold accountable in this case? Everyone who lives in Russia, or, for example, the notorious Nurlan Saburov, who is Kazakh by nationality. He will also appeal to the fact that he is not Russian by origin.
Therefore, we come to the conclusion that such liability is impossible from a legal point of view. And by raising the question of the need for its introduction, we will cause heated discussions and a long search for consensus, which may lead nowhere.
We already have a category of international responsibility that concerns the state. And since there is no such thing as a state physically, it will be the same Russians who will bear international responsibility. The latter is not called criminal, just international responsibility for Russian aggression and the crimes that it led.
The form of international responsibility in this case is sectoral sanctions and reparations. The people of the Russian Federation in any case will be held accountable. It will simply be called the international responsibility of the state.
The onset of such responsibility will be traced in the fact that an increasing number of states will remove jurisdictional immunities from Russian property. As the United States is already beginning to do, for example, and Canada is on the way to this solution.
Following their example, the EU will do the same. And Ukraine has already done it. Giving Russia the status of a terrorist state is also very important in the context of collective responsibility. This allows you to remove jurisdictional immunity from the property of a terrorist state.
Can the denazification of the society of the Russian Federation be carried out, as was the case with Germany after its surrender?
There is already a consensus in the international community about the need to denazify Russia. If the war ends with the capitulation of the aggressor, then I do not rule out that some kind of supervisory board will be created or the Council of Europe will be given the function of overseeing the denazification of Muscovy. Perhaps the implementation of the denazification procedure will be a condition for lifting part of the sanctions or resuming Russian membership in the Council of Europe.I see the denazification criteria for myself as follows:
- Requirement to observe freedom of speech.
- Inadmissibility of hate speech in relation to other countries.
- Pursuing a policy of restoration and preservation of historical memory. Including the memory of international crimes during the war against Ukraine.
As you can see, we cannot draw any parallels with the denazification of Germany or its demilitarization. For if Russia survives as a state after its defeat, its new leadership will simply not agree to the classic denazification in a surrender agreement.
Although, I would strongly insist on this. Thanks to this, we could receive additional guarantees of non-recurrence of aggression, which Russia will have to provide us. At the same time, we, as a state, have every right to dictate the form of these guarantees.
