Global InformationRussian war crimes information
Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide[1] which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. These accusations have also been extended to the aiding and abetting of crimes which have been committed by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These war crimes have included murder, torture, terrorism, deportation and forced transfer, abduction, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, and wanton destruction.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Russian war crimes in Chechnya,[2][3][4] Georgia,[5][6] Ukraine[7][8][9][10] and Syria.[11][12][13][14] Médecins Sans Frontières also documented war crimes in Chechnya.[15] In 2017 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported that Russia used cluster and incendiary weapons in Syria, constituting the war crime of indiscriminate attacks in a civilian populated area.[16] OHCHR also found Russia guilty of war crimes in Ukraine in 2022[17] and 2023.[18] On 13 April 2022, OSCE published a report finding Russia guilty of war crimes in the Mariupol hospital airstrike, while its targeted killings and enforced disappearance or abductions of civilians, including journalists and local officials, could tentatively also be crimes against humanity.[19]
By 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued 115 verdicts (including the virdict in the Baysayeva v. Russia case) in which it found the Russian government guilty of perpetrating enforced disappearances, murder, torture, and failing to properly investigate these crimes in Chechnya.[20] In 2021, the ECHR also separately found Russia guilty of murder, torture, looting and destruction of homes in Georgia, as well as preventing the return of 20,000 displaced Georgians to their territory.[21][22][23]
As a consequence of its involvement in the war in Ukraine, wide-scale international sanctions have been imposed on Russian officials by the governments of Western countries (twice in 2014 and twice in 2022).[24][25] In 2016, Russia withdrew its signature from the International Criminal Court (ICC), when the Court began investigating Russia's annexation of Crimea for possible violations of international law.[26][27] As a result, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/3 officially suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council membership due to war crimes in Ukraine. Many Russian officials were found guilty by local courts for war crimes committed in both Chechnya and Ukraine. Ultimately, since 2023, the ICC indicted four Russian officials, including Russian leader Vladimir Putin, for war crimes in Ukraine.
- ^ Oksana Dudko (2022). "A conceptual limbo of genocide: Russian rhetoric, mass atrocities in Ukraine, and the current definition's limits". Revue Canadienne des Slavistes. 64 (2–3): 133–145. doi:10.1080/00085006.2022.2106691. S2CID 252316182.
Sergeitsev's article is a significant example of how the Kremlin's claims that it is preventing genocide against Russian Ukrainians have transformed into open admissions about perpetrating genocide in Ukraine. As Susan Smith-Peter points out, we have now encountered a kind of twenty-first-century 'postmodern genocide': while accusing Ukraine of perpetrating genocide, Russia uses genocidal rhetoric and commits genocidal crimes itself, and, moreover, it 'does not feel the need to hide [them].' Indeed, Sergeitsev's explicit call for Russians to destroy Ukraine is shocking. Siding with Russia's state propaganda rhetoric about "Nazi Ukraine," Sergeitsev proposes to liquidate Ukraine as a state, including the very usage of the name 'Ukraine,' because 'Ukraine, as history has shown, is impossible as a nation-state, and attempts to 'build' one naturally lead to Nazism.'
- ^ "No progress in Chechnya without accountability". Amnesty International. 17 April 2009. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ "Worse Than a War: "Disappearances" in Chechnya—a Crime Against Humanity". Human Rights Watch. March 2005. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ "NO HAPPINESS REMAINS" CIVILIAN KILLINGS, PILLAGE, AND RAPE IN ALKHAN-YURT, CHECHNYA Archived 13 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch investigation report, April 2000
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
sendwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Amnesty International 2009, p. 25—26.
- ^ "Ukraine: Rebel Forces Detain, Torture Civilians – Dire Concern for Safety of Captives". Human Rights Watch. 28 August 2014. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Mounting evidence of war crimes and Russian involvementwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Russia/Ukraine: Invasion of Ukraine is an act of aggression and human rights catastrophe". Amnesty International. 1 March 2022. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
- ^ Hugh Williamson (23 February 2023). "Ukraine: Human Cost of Brutal Russian Invasion". Human Rights Watch.
- ^ "Syria: Russia's shameful failure to acknowledge civilian killings". Amnesty International. 23 December 2015. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Syria/Russia: Incendiary Weapons Burn in Aleppowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
War Crimes in Month of Bombing Aleppowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Binet 2016, p. 29—31, 97, 136.
- ^ OHCHR & 2 February 2017, p. 12... «Between July and December 2016, Syrian and Russian forces carried out daily air strikes, claiming hundreds of lives and reducing hospitals, schools and markets to rubble... Syrian and Russian air forces conducted daily air strikes in Aleppo throughout most of the period under review, exclusively employing, as far as the Commission could determine, unguided air-delivered munitions»...
- ^ "War crimes have been committed in Ukraine conflict, top UN human rights inquiry reveals". UN News. 23 September 2022.
- ^ "War crimes, indiscriminate attacks on infrastructure, systematic and widespread torture show disregard for civilians, says UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 16 March 2023.
- ^ Madeline Halpert (13 April 2022). "Russia Committed 'Clear' Violations Of Humanitarian Law And War Crimes, OSCE Says". Forbes. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- ^ ""Who Will Tell Me What Happened to My Son?" – Russia's Implementation of European Court of Human Rights Judgments on Chechnya". Human Rights Watch. 27 September 2009. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ Harding, Luke (21 January 2021). "Russia committed human rights violation in Georgia war, ECHR rules". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- ^ "Court Condemns Russia for Violating Human Rights After 2008 Georgia War". The Moscow Times. 21 January 2021. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- ^ "European court: Russia must answer for abuses in 2008 Georgia war". Reuters. 21 January 2021. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- ^ "EU restrictive measures in response to the crisis in Ukraine". Council of the European Union. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ Michelle Toh, Junko Ogura, Hira Humayun, Isaac Yee, Eric Cheung, Sam Fossum, Ramishah Maruf (28 February 2022). "The list of global sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine". CNN Business. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Russia withdraws from International Criminal Court treaty". BBC News. 16 November 2016. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ "Russia's withdrawal from International Criminal Court statute is 'completely cynical'". Amnesty International. 16 November 2016. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.