Armenia has formally joined the international criminal court (ICC), officials said, a move which traditional ally Moscow has denounced as unfriendly.
The Hague-based court in March issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia.
Yerevan is now obliged to arrest the Russian leader if he sets foot on its territory.
“ICC Rome statute officially entered into force for Armenia on 1 February,” the country’s official representative for international legal matters, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, told AFP.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Armenia had taken a “wrong decision” when its parliament voted in October to ratify the ICC’s Rome statute, and the Russian foreign ministry has called the move an “unfriendly step”.
Despite the article’s framing, Armenia isn’t particularly interested in antagonizing Russia, but rather they’re looking for whatever protections they may get against further aggression from Azeirbayan.