Medvedev on Putin’s arrest: would be “declaration of war on Russian Federation”.

For former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the arrest of Vladimir Putin abroad on the basis of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant would be a declaration of war on his country. He said this in an interview with the state news agency Tass on Thursday.

“Let’s imagine – of course this is a situation that will never happen, yes – but let’s imagine that it really happened. For example, a sitting president of a nuclear power comes to Germany and is arrested. What is that? A declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” said Medvedev.

An international arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine against Kremlin chief Putin has been in place since last week. However, Russia – and also China – do not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Regarding German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann’s words that Germany should carry out the sentence and arrest the Russian head of state if he enters German territory, Medvedev said: “Is he aware that this would be a casus belli, a declaration of war? Or did he miss his homework?” In any case, the ICC decision is negative for relations with the West, which are already worse than at the start of the Cold War.

Medvedev stressed that Ukraine is part of Russia. His country cannot allow Ukraine to join NATO to launch an operation against Russia.

On the relationship with China, Medvedev said he was not concerned that the partnership between the two countries would be unequal as they complemented each other perfectly. “No alliance is ever perfectly balanced.” China is much larger than Russia in terms of population and economy. But Russia has its own capabilities.

Medvedev has attracted attention several times in recent months with extremely sharp and sometimes bizarre attacks on the West. Observers suspect that the politician, who was once considered more liberal, wants to give himself the image of a hardliner for a possible successor to Putin. (sda/dpa)