What is it, Barrymore? The UN Court accused the Russian Federation of violating the convention on combating the financing of terrorism

Exclusive. On Wednesday, January 31, the UN International Court of Justice recognized violations by Russia of the International Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This is a historic decision and another victory for Ukraine on the legal front.

Putin and the "ex-governor" of Sevastopol Dmitry Ovsyannikov

Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia was filed in January 2017 — even before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In its lawsuit, Ukraine insisted that the Russian Federation sponsored terrorism in the Donbass and was responsible for the activities of separatist groups. In particular, it is to blame for the fact that in June 2014, passenger Boeing MH17 was shot down with the help of the Buk installation delivered from the Russian Federation. Most of the passengers on the flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia were going on vacation or returning from it. There were 80 children on board. All 298 people on board the "Boeing" died in the plane crash - 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

In his final speech, the representative of Russia stated that "no "Buk" came from Russia." And then the trial in The Hague ended in November 2022 with a verdict against three of the four defendants: Russian citizens - Igor Hyrkin (Strelkov), Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed "DPR", retired FSB officer Sergey Dubinsky, as well as a citizen of Ukraine, lieutenant colonel of the Airborne Forces Reserve of the Russian Army Leonid Kharchenko — were found guilty in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment. In February 2023, the criminal case about the Boeing disaster was continued. Representatives of the United Investigative Group (JIT) said that Vladimir Putin was involved in the downing of the airliner MH17 and personally approved the delivery of the Buk to the territory of Ukraine.

Also, according to Ukraine's accusations, since 2014, Russia has been systematically discriminating against the non-Russian population of the annexed Crimea. Kyiv accused Moscow of trying to destroy the culture of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians.

The court established that Russia did not investigate the facts of financing terrorism in the east of Ukraine, destroyed the Ukrainian-language education in Crimea, and also unlawfully banned the representative body of the Crimean Tatars, which had been functioning since 1991 — the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.

The legal team of Ukraine at the UN International Court of Justice demonstrated its skill in adapting the claims to the UN conventions, which are inflexible and far removed from the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The chances of success were not initially guaranteed, so the partial satisfaction of Kiev's claims in the case of financing terrorism and racial discrimination in the annexed Crimea is a victory for Ukraine. The court dismissed a number of accused only on formal grounds and did not award compensation.

"This is a very important day for us, because this is a decision that indicates that the Russian Federation has violated international law," Anton Korynevich, Ukraine's chief lawyer in this case, commented on the decision. "This is the first time that Russia has been called a violator of international law."

The decision of the UN International Court of Justice is final and not subject to appeal. The verdict is binding for all participating countries and the international organization and has a higher legal force than, for example, resolutions of the UN General Assembly.

In addition, on February 2, the UN court will announce another decision - an interim decision on admissibility for consideration - on the second lawsuit of Ukraine against the Russian Federation - for violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Ukraine uses all legal formats to fight the aggressor. In addition to the UN International Court of Justice, cases against the Russian Federation and its officials are also heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a number of other courts established in accordance with their jurisdiction.

In particular, on March 17, 2023, the Ministry of Justice made an epoch-making decision — it issued international arrest warrants for the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, as well as the Commissioner for Child Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. Putin became the sixth head of state to be indicted by the ICC or special tribunals. He will repeat the fate of the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, accused of the same crimes by the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, who died in prison in The Hague in 2006, without waiting for the verdict. But if he is lucky, he will not be eliminated before, like Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed by his own generals.

No one will be able to hide from justice for crimes against Ukraine due to the absence of a statute of limitations for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

For example, on Wednesday, January 31, the "ex-governor" of the annexed Sevastopol, Dmitry Ovsyannikov, was detained in London. He is accused of circumventing sanctions and opening an account in a London bank, as well as making four payments totaling £65. and in storage £77,5 thousand. cash Great Britain introduced sanctions against Ovsyannikov at the end of 2020. In 2023, he was excluded from the EU sanctions list by a court decision, as he no longer held the positions for which he was sanctioned, but he was not excluded from the British list.

"Now the British, Americans, etc. they will search all over the world for Russians who can be "packaged" in the Ukrainian conditional court case. That is, to arrest and hand over to Kyiv in order to arrange a noisy PR," the propaganda shouts, and this is the rare case when you want to agree with it. They will "search everywhere for Russians", and the "court case" will not be limited to yesterday's decision of the UN International Court of Justice.

Vera Perovskaya