The appointment of appearing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO secretary-general is unlikely to alter the alliance’s “hostile” angle in the direction of Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Peskov referred to as NATO “an alliance hostile to Russia,” noting that its members work on “suppressing Russia” each as impartial states and the members of the North-Atlantic Treaty.
“It is unlikely that this choice is capable of changing anything in the general line of NATO and the members of the Atlantic alliance, which separately, under the direct US leadership and together, as the North Atlantic Alliance, are working to strategically suppress the Russian Federation. At the moment, this is an hostile alliance for us,” he mentioned.
Earlier within the day, the ambassadors of 32 NATO nations at a gathering of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels accredited Rutte’s candidacy.
Turning to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrent for former Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, and head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Peskov mentioned Russia doesn’t acknowledge the courtroom’s jurisdiction.
“We are not members of the relevant [Rome] statute. Accordingly, we do not recognize these warrants. We consider them quite absurd, as well as the last two warrants, which concerned the head of state and our children’s ombudsman,” he added.
On June 25, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Shoygu and Gerasimovon on expenses of commiting conflict crimes in Ukraine.
On March 17, 2023, the worldwide tribunal had issued warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for youngsters’s rights, over comparable allegations.
Source: www.anews.com.tr