Dear CCI Friends,
“The ICJ has now effectively confirmed that the entire mainstream narrative of what happened in Crimea and Donbas over the previous decade was fraudulent.”
That quote from the article below summarizes the author’s dissection of two recent rulings by the International Court of Justice. The cases were filed by Kiev against Russia long before the ongoing armed conflict, but they provide essential background necessary to form an understanding of how public perception of that conflict – in the West – has been manipulated. Words matter to a rule of law advocate and clearly the ICJ judges are such advocates finding as they did that Russia is not a ‘terrorist state,’ and the people of the Donbas are not “terrorists,” just because Kiev says so and backs up what it says by quoting Western media . . . quoting Kiev.
One of the cases involves Crimea. For CCI delegates who have visited the peninsula since 2014 and talked with Russian, Ukrainian and Tartar residents there, it may be of particular interest.
Legal decisions can be dense and often a slog to read. Please let us know how these cases, and Kit Klarenberg’s analysis of them, strike you.
The Directors
Center for Citizen Initiatives
The Wheels of Justice Grind Slow But They Grind Exceedingly Fine
March 13, 2024
By Kit Klarenberg
As January became February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a pair of legal body blows to Ukraine and its Western backers. First, on January 31, it ruled on a case brought by Kiev against Russia in 2017, which accused Moscow of presiding over a campaign of “terrorism” in Donbas, including the July 2014 downing of MH17. It also charged that Russia racially discriminated against Ukrainian and Tatar residents of Crimea following its reunification with Moscow.
The ICJ summarily rejected most charges. Then, on February 2, the Court made a preliminary judgment in a case where Kiev accused Moscow of exploiting false claims of an ongoing genocide of Russians and Russian speakers in Donbas to justify its invasion. Ukraine further charged the Special Military Operation breached the Genocide Convention despite not itself constituting genocide. Almost unanimously, ICJ judges rejected these arguments.
[Continue Reading]