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Russia guilty of human rights violations in Crimea - European court; ICC issues arrest warrants for Putin allies

Russia guilty of human rights violations in Crimea - European court; ICC issues arrest warrants for Putin allies
Bloomberg
By Bloomberg
26 Jun 2024
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Russia was guilty of numerous human rights violations since it occupied Crimea in 2014, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sergei Shoigu, the ousted Russian defence minister, and Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s army chief, over allegations they committed war crimes in Ukraine.

A controversial state body set up by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has started a probe into the graft watchdog Transparency International’s Hungarian arm, in the latest move targeting civic groups critical of his regime.

Russia tortured Ukrainians in Crimea, rules European court


Russia was guilty of torturing, beating and numerous other human rights violations of Ukrainian nationals since it occupied Crimea in 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.

There were 43 cases of disappearances or abductions between 2014 and 2018 and the forced relocation of some 12,500 Crimean prisoners on to Russian territory, the Strasbourg-based court said on Tuesday. 

Their ill-treatment included “arbitrary arrests and detention” and “torture”. Victims “were kept incommunicado, tied blindfolded, beaten up” and electrocuted, the court said citing a report from the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Allegations of wrongdoing by Russia have been widespread since its troops first occupied Crimea in 2014, but Tuesday’s verdict was among the first condemnations by an international court since then. The conflict between the two countries has worsened with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, triggering fresh allegations of atrocities by Russian forces.

Iryna Mudra, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff, said the decision was the “first of a kind”. 

“The international court recognises that Russia is responsible for the policy of large-scale and systematic violations of various human rights and freedoms,” Mudra said.

The ECHR also found there had been a “systemic campaign of large-scale expropriation and nationalisation of property belonging to civilians and private enterprises in Crimea”.  

The court ruled that Russia must take steps to ensure the safe return to Crimea of the prisoners transferred to Russia. However, this and other steps ordered by the court remain essentially unenforceable since Russia left the Council of Europe and the ECHR in 2022, shortly after the invasion. 

Putin ally Shoigu and Russian army chief face ICC arrest warrant


The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sergei Shoigu, the ousted Russian defence minister, over allegations he committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s army chief, are each accused of the war crime of directing attacks at civilian objects and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians in Ukraine, according to a statement by the ICC on Tuesday. 

The Hague-based court said there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bore responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian electricity infrastructure between at least October 2022 and at least March 2023.

Read more: Russian officers hit with arrest warrants for alleged war crimes

The ICC tries individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin also faces an arrest warrant issued by the ICC in 2023 over war crimes related to the alleged abduction of children from Ukraine. Russia is not a signatory to the ICC and rarely engages with any charges filed against it.

Putin’s travel abroad has been restricted since the ICC issued the arrest warrant against him. He didn’t travel to South Africa for the BRICS summit last August because of the risk he would face arrest.

Shoigu (68) was defence minister from 2012 until last month, when Putin replaced him with a trained economist, Andrey Belousov, in an effort to make the Russian war machine more efficient. He is regarded as one of Putin’s closest allies.  

Now secretary of the Russian Security Council, Shoigu in his defence ministry post had ordered an intensification of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine in recent months in response to the US decision to supply more weapons to its ally.

Gerasimov has been chief of the General Staff since November 2012 and has been in overall charge of Russia’s war operations in Ukraine since January last year. Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Hungary launches probe against graft watchdog in Orbán crackdown


A controversial state body set up by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has started a probe into the graft watchdog Transparency International’s Hungarian arm, in the latest move targeting civic groups critical of his regime.

The investigation was started because Transparency International received funding from abroad and its work was deemed to influence Hungarian voters, according to a letter from the Sovereignty Protection Agency that the anti-corruption group published on Tuesday.

Transparency, in a statement, called the probe “completely baseless and wrong” and said it violated Hungary’s Constitution as well as European values by targeting a civic group for voicing criticism of the government. Under Orbán’s 14-year rule, Hungary has plunged to last place in the European Union in the watchdog’s latest corruption perception rankings.

The state agency was the brainchild of Orbán, who’s been dismantling liberal democracy since 2010, striking up close ties with Russia and China while maintaining Hungary’s membership in the EU and the Nato military alliance. 

The EU executive last month extended its legal probe against Hungary over the law underpinning the Sovereignty Protection Agency after Orbán’s government failed to alleviate concerns that the legislation may be used to undermine democracy. The agency’s first target was Peter Magyar, the leading Hungarian opposition figure, over claims of foreign financing that the politician has denied. 

Pentagon praises SpaceX efforts to stymie Russian Starlink use


Elon Musk’s SpaceX has cooperated extensively with the US military to stop Russia’s illicit use of its Starlink satellite communication terminals in Ukraine, a Pentagon official has assured a legislator.

SpaceX “has been forward-leaning in providing information to support investigations and denying service” since Russia’s use of the terminals “became known several months ago”, Amanda Dory, acting undersecretary for policy, wrote to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren this month in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

Dory wrote that an estimated one in a hundred Starlink terminals in Ukraine were illegitimate and service had been cut to “several hundred unapproved terminals”. 

The letter reaffirmed a previous Defense Department assurance that SpaceX was helping to curb Russian military use of the terminals, which have become essential communications tools both for Ukraine’s war operations and its civilians. 

Earlier: Musk’s SpaceX, Pentagon team up to block Russia from Starlink

Dory wrote that the Pentagon believed Russian forces “will adapt and persist in efforts to gain their illicit access”. Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been reviewing SpaceX’s Pentagon contractual relationships and has raised questions about the Russian use of Starlink terminals in the war. DM

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