Lavrov recalled that earlier the ICC prosecutor opened a case to investigate war crimes that the United States and the coalition led by them committed in Afghanistan.
"Washington reacted very simply - announced sanctions against the prosecutor, some other employees of the International Criminal Court, and the case was closed," the minister said.
No one likes such behavior, including Washington's allies, Lavrov is sure.
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that no decisions of the ICC are important for Russia, including from a legal point of view.
In November 2016, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said it was believed that the CIA and the U.S. military in Afghanistan had committed torture and other war crimes during interrogations.
At the same time, the media reported that Bensouda could also conduct an investigation into the US airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which occurred in October 2015, then 42 people were killed. Disciplinary sanctions were applied to the guilty US military.
In March 2020, the ICC Appeals Chamber unanimously approved the prosecutor's motion to investigate possible crimes committed in Afghanistan.
After that, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the court's decision and said that the ICC "pretends to be a legal body."
After that, Donald Trump, who was at that time the American president, signed an executive order authorizing the imposition of sanctions against members of the ICC.