Garland supports the effort to hold Russia accountable for war crimes

The Kremlin and the United States: “We need a long confrontation with Russia” after President Volodymyr Zelensky

Kyiv and its Western allies are “set for a long confrontation with Russia” following President Volodymyr Zelensky’s momentous visit to Washington, Moscow said as the war in Ukraine approaches 10 months.

“We reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes,” he said. The acts are part of the Kremlin’s systematic attack on Ukraine’s civilian population.

Maria Zakharova said that the West will achieve nothing even if they provide a lot of military support to the Ukrainian government.

Zakharova said that the tasks set within the framework of the special military operation will be fulfilled and take into account the current situation on the ground.

Zelensky spoke from the US Capitol, asking for more aid in fighting Russian aggression and expressing gratitude for American help.

The US announced a new $1.8 billion aid package to Ukraine, which included the “first-ever transfer to Ukraine of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, capable of bringing down cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, and aircraft at a significantly higher ceiling than previously provided air defense systems.”

The United States and other countries are constantly expanding their ranges and raising the technical level of their weapons that they provide to the Ukrainians, according to a Kremlin spokesman. “This does not contribute to a speedy settlement of the situation, on the contrary.”

Peskov added that “there were no real calls for peace.” Zelensky stressed that “we need peace” in his address to the US Congress.

The meeting showed that the US is in a proxy war against Russia, Peskov told journalists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for this tribunal to investigate crimes of aggression during an event hosted by the United States Institute of Peace, the Atlantic Council, and the Ukrainian Embassy last month.

Vladimir Putin and the International Criminal Court: The anniversary of the Crimes of Humanitarian Invasion of Ukraine as declared by the Vice President in Germany

The Observer reported that the proposal has the support of British politicians including Keir Starmer and former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

The statement claimed that the International Criminal Court has been unable to look into crimes of aggression against Ukraine due to Russia’s veto in the Security Council.

During an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, Brown said that having dealt with Russian President Vladimir Putin while he was in office, he believes that the “only thing” Putin “understands is strength.”

“To start a criminal and unprovoked war is to open the door to thousands of crimes committed during hostilities and in occupied territory,” the president added.

The Nuremberg Trials held between 1945 and 1946 which saw Nazi officials tried for planning and executing invasions of other countries could possibly be used as a template for the tribunal according to UK politicians.

The UK is not the first to publicly express support for this kind of tribunal, which was initially proposed by Anglo-French lawyer Philippe Sands in February.

The EU is open to working with the international community to get the broadest international support possible for the court.

The Vice President announced on Saturday in Germany that the US had determined that Russia had committed crimes against humanity during its war in Ukraine.

While the latest crimes against humanity determination is significant, it remains largely symbolic for now. It does not immediately trigger any specific consequences, nor does it give the US the ability to prosecute the Russians involved with perpetrating crimes against humanity. However, it could provide international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which work to hold perpetrators accountable, with evidence to effectively try to prosecute those crimes.

The one-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine comes after Harris’ announcement Saturday. The vice president is in Germany as a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to show commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and unity among Western allies who have provided billions in aid, funding and weapons to combat Russia’s aggression. Biden is scheduled to visit Poland on Monday.

The United States and Ukraine will stand up for the judicial process in Ukraine as long as it takes, according to a keynote speaker on Saturday

Harris, who was once a prosecutor and later ran California’s Department of Justice, said that as a young lawyer in the court room, she knew the importance of gathering information and holding them against the law.

Harris’ speech cited evidence of indiscriminate Russian attacks that deliberately targeted civilians, including the bombing of a maternity hospital that killed a pregnant mother and of a theater in Mariupol, where hundreds were killed. The images of people shot and left to rot in the streets were shown by the United Nations and a girl was sexually attacked by a Russian soldier according to the vice president.

“Let us be clear, Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population,” she said. Murders, torture, rape, and deportation are some of the things that have been done. Execution style killings, beatings, and death by electric chair. Hundreds of thousands of people fromUkraine have been deported to Russia.

According to a White House fact sheet, the US provided $30 million to investigate war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. The Biden administration is seeking another nearly $30 million from Congress to bolster efforts on this issue.

“In the face of these indisputable facts, to all of us here in Munich, let us renew our commitment to accountability. Let us renew our commitment to the rule of law,” she said. “As for the United States, we will continue to support the judicial process in Ukraine and international investigations because justice must be served. Justice should be served for all the victims, who are known and unknown.

Harris, in her speech Saturday, pledged that the US would “strongly support” Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” touting the Ukrainian people’s resolve and resilience.

Questions have swirled in recent months about how much more funding the US will provide to Ukraine’s war effort, now that Republicans are in charge of the US House of Repsentatives and have promised no “blank checks.” But Harris noted Saturday how many congressional leaders were at the conference in Munich. This included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

“They are here together because they understand the stakes. The leadership of these members has been vital to America’s support of Ukraine, and President Biden and I know that their support for Ukraine will continue,” the vice president said.

The principles of the United Nations Charter are the ones that need to be followed. It is fundamentally against the interests of every other country around the world to wind up with a result that somehow indicates the seizure by force of territory, that validates that,” Blinken said during a discussion panel in Munich with Annalena Baerbock and Dmytro Kuleba, his respective German and Ukrainian counterparts.

If Russia got away with it, every would-be aggressor will conclude that we can get away with it if we do that. He added that this is a recipe for a world of conflict.

Also in Munich, CIA Director Bill Burns said Saturday that intelligence sharing with NATO allies has proved essential to supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

“It’s a two-way street. We have learned from our NATO partners. Burns said in a panel discussion that we learn a lot from the Ukrainians. That, he said, “has been the kind of essential cement in the coalition that the president has organized.”

The nations of North Korea and Iran have sent weapons to support Russia. We are also troubled that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the war began,” Harris said.

“Looking ahead, any steps by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killing and further undermine a rules-based order,” she said.

CNN has reported that China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will visit Russia this month, according to its Foreign Ministry, in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Wang Yi at the International Criminal Court Baseline for the Study of Spy Ballooning in Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday issued a supporting statement saying the U.S. will work to hold those responsible to account, while emphasizing the importance of this designation. Blinken is attending the meeting.

Ukranian is not a state party to treaty that established theICC. The country accepted the court’s jurisdiction over war crimes that occurred within it’s borders. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he would seek authorization to investigate war crimes inUkraine after Russia’s invasion.

As tension between the U.S. and China lingers, Blinken is set to meet with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, for talks this weekend in Munich. Since the balloon incident, there has been a higher level of contact between the US and China.

The relationship between the U.S. and China has been tense since the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traveled through the U.S.

Beijing, however, insists that the balloon was a civilian craft used for scientific research, and that shooting it down was an overreaction and a violation of international practice.

The conference attracts heads of state and generals, intelligence chiefs and top diplomats from around the world.

The conference was chaired by Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who told Western leaders to act rather than talk, calling for swift deliveries of weapons and warning of dwindling supplies.

Geopolitical Challenges in the era of Cold War: What Europe has to Learn from NATO and the ICC, and What Europe Can We Do About It

With a record number of delegate, the U.S. made its presence felt at the gathering.

But with delegations attending from every continent, beyond Europe and the members of NATO, broader geopolitical issues were at play, both on the conference stage and on the sidelines.

Many countries have provisions in their own codes against crimes against humanity. The ICC, the International Criminal Court, has a similar provision, and there is an effort now which the United States is supporting to look into the possibility of setting up a center for the investigation of war crimes, which would include the crimes against humanity and also the crime of aggression. The United States has provisions also for investigating and prosecuting war crimes. And I can tell you that we have actually identified suspects who we would have jurisdiction over for committing war crimes. I’m afraid I’ve disclosed as much as I’m capable of disclosing at this point. We may be able to talk more as we progress.

Wang will go to Moscow after the conference, and he said that “some forces” have no interest in seeing the war end soon, because of bigger strategic goals than Ukraine. He did not elaborate on who he meant, but the message chimes with claims from Russia that NATO is unwilling to enter into peace talks.

While Wang Yi called for peace in Ukraine – without elaborating how to achieve it or what peace in the region means – Europe’s leaders committed to investing more in weapons.

The president of the European Commission thinks that member states need to work together with the defense industry to help scale up the production of munitions for Ukraine which is being used quicker than Europe can replace.

European leaders have pledged to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that they need to act quickly. He joked that it was ironic that he needed to urge others to deliver Leopard tanks quickly to Ukraine after they put pressure on him to do the same in previous weeks.

Boris Pistorius pushed for increased military spending within Europe and NATO as soon as he became Defense Minister. He went one step further than Scholz’s promise to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense, and called on the NATO alliance to agree on 2% as a minimum commitment, aiming for higher. Germany currently does not meet the 2% target and is not expected to do so for another couple of years, despite Scholz’s additional €100 billion boost to the Bundeswehr budget.

Scholz remained tight-lipped about requests from Ukraine to send fighter jets, having publicly said no on several occasions. He warned against hasty decisions but said Germany’s support for Kyiv is steadfast.

Anger in Ukraine: Why do we live in a democracy? A human rights lawyer’s perspective on the recent Munich Security Conference and the Center for Civil Liberties

Prominent Kremlin critics — including exiled oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chess champion Gary Kasparov, and Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of jailed opposition political Alexey Navalny — were pointedly offered seats instead.

Even though the Munich Security Conference promotes dialogue between adversaries, it was not a good idea to serve as a podium for Russian propaganda.

In an interview, Heusgen admitted he left last year’s conference convinced that Russia wouldn’t invade Ukraine. Four days later, the invasion began.

The Center for Civil Liberties is headed by a Ukranian human rights lawyer named Oleksandra Matviichuk. The Center received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its work. She collaborated with other partners to create the “Tribunal for Putin” initiative to document crimes in Ukraine. Her views are her own in this commentary. View more opinion articles on CNN.

Anger was the motivator during the first weeks of last year’s war. Anger that the Russians can take away our freedom because they have the right, as well as anger that they can’t decide if we can have a democratic future.

The path to a democracy began inUkraine during the revolution. Government was decentralized to give more rights to local communities. Parliament adopted anti-corruption legislation, making it difficult to hide misuses of power. Changes to our Constitution opened the way to judicial reform. There are a lot of things that need to be done, but we’re on the right track.

United States Mission to Ukraine: Detecting War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and the Potential for Crimes Against Aggression

Since 2014, the Center for Civil Liberties has been documenting the abductions, rapes, tortures, and extra-judicial killings in the occupied territories. The river of horrors turned into a flood in February last year.

I have found that despite so many setbacks, we are still able to rely on people.

The spirit I experienced in Maidan Square was that of the one I saw before. Those protests kept on, despite the police beatings, and then the killings, because we believed in something better. And it came.

The love that goes forth to a future Ukraine where human rights are respected, is perhaps a further extension of this love. Where perhaps we no longer need a Center for Civil Liberties to fight for them. Perhaps even to a vision of the world where this spirit of shared humanity prevails.

An official at the Justice Department said that Attorney General Garland traveled toUkraine on Friday for the second time after Russia invaded the country.

Garland and Zelinsky agreed to exchange information about Russian atrocities against Ukranian civilians since the beginning of the unprovoked conflict one year ago.

The attorney general last went to Ukraine in June and similarly committed the United States’ assistance in finding and prosecuting those who committed war crimes. Garland made a big announcement during the trip that he was appointing Eli Rosenbaum, the top US Nazi hunter, to lead a Justice Department team to identify and prosecute war criminals.

The United States supports a court in the Netherlands that could charges crimes of aggression, according to Garland.

“There are concerns that we have to take into account with respect to how that might deal with our own service members and other circumstances,” he continued. We want to make sure the appropriate ones are up. But we support any number of different ways in which war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the potential for crimes against aggression are investigated.”

The Task Force KleptoCapture has been combing through the wealth of Russians for the past year. Since the beginning of the war, the Justice Department has seized more than $500 million in yachts, properties and other assets from people who support the Russian government and have evaded US sanctions, according to a department news release.

The department has also brought over 30 indictments against sanctioned supporters of the Kremlin and Russian military, the department has said, some of which have directly implicated individuals in supporting the war in Ukraine.

“The perpetrators of those crimes will not get away with it,” Garland said in remarks to a room filled with European justice ministers, presidents and other dignitaries.

The United States has a long memory about war crimes, the attorney general said, pointing to an effort to identify and deport Nazi war criminals who fled to America. Ultimately about 130 such cases advanced, many a generation or more after World War II ended.

Garland said the Justice Department has the authority to prosecute people who kill US citizens overseas. He said the prosecutors are working around the clock to bring them to justice.

He detailed areas of close cooperation already under way with Ukraine and allies to keep track of complex streams of evidence, provide forensic help and training, and to even advise on environmental crimes that have victimized Ukrainians during the course of the ongoing conflict. Garland plans to hire a legal adviser from the U.S. to work in the country.

As investigators inside of Ukraine sift through the rubble of disaster sites to document evidence of mistreatment and abuse, the meeting comes. As the war rages on, it also comes. Garland and other American officials said part of the motivation for speaking now is to deliver a message that could reach Russians waging the conflict.

The attorney general said the U.S. would support separate international efforts targeting people responsible for the crime of aggression, pointing out that effort was led by his predecessor, Robert Jackson.

Ukraine: Victims of War Crimes and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Explanation of His Childhood Experience in the U.S.

He pointed to personal history at the end of his remarks. Before the Nazis invaded their country, his grandmother entered the U.S. She did not make it out of Europe, so her siblings died in the Holocaust. It is still not known what happened to the survivors.

On his way to Ukraine for an unannounced visit last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke about upholding the rule of law inside the U.S. and overseas in an exclusive interview with NPR.

He spoke about the special counsels investigating Donald Trump and Joe Biden in addition to the upcoming two-year anniversary as attorney general.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161300649/ukraine-victims-of-war-crimes-russia-attorney-general-merrick-garland

Do Ukrainian War Criminals hide in the United States? A case of Prigozhin in charge of the War Crimes against Humanity in Ukraine

With respect to my own family, my grandmother comes from a town in Belarus, not very far from Lviv, where we’re going to be. She’s one of five children. She and two of her siblings made it to the United States long before the Nazis invaded. Two didn’t. We know that they were killed in the Holocaust. One of them was named for my father. We do not know what happened to them. It’s important for families to know what happened during the atrocities in their home country.

It’s very important that we do everything we can to deter this type of aggression from happening again. We help the Ukrainians in investigating and prosecuting war crimes so that they can deter future conflicts, which we hope will be the case with the Russians. And second, we prosecute sanctions if we have sanctions evaders. Those that allow the Russian war machine to continue are subject to sanctions. And then when they break those sanctions, we grab their assets and where possible, we grab them and prosecute them so that others, particularly I’m thinking of the oligarchs here, do not continue to facilitate this war.

On declarations he, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have made regarding Russia having committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine

We can look at both in the short term and the long term, and we can see there may be people in some areas of the country that the Russians have occupied. We might be able to extradite people in other parts of the world. And the United States has a very long memory and it took a very long time for some of the Nazi war criminals to be found. But eventually they were. Both in the short term, the medium term and the long term. We want to make sure that the United States isn’t a place where war criminals can hide. And so anyone who does should know that we will get them and prosecute them in a court of law in the United States.

He is the principal company’s name is Wagner. The company of mercenaries expanded after a war in the region against the Ukrainians, bringing in prisoners from Russian jails and moving them into the front line. There is considerable trouble being caused in North Africa by Wagner. Prigozhin is a bad actor. I think that’s what accounts for how I talked about him at the hearing.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161300649/ukraine-victims-of-war-crimes-russia-attorney-general-merrick-garland

Interference in the Special Counsels’ Regulations and in the Prosecutive Branch of the Judicial Supervision Board: Who I’m Talking to?

The special counsels’ regulations provide for reports from time to time, but there is no daily supervision by anyone in the Justice Department. And those have taken place. It’s not a daily or weekly thing. Not on a daily or weekly basis.

The investigations are under the controls of the special counsels. And even if I knew their timetables, which I don’t, Justice Department policy would bar me from making any comment.

This job allows me to pursue the rule of law, to support career lawyers and agents and staff of the Justice Department in doing their work, and to ensure that they are not interfered with by anyone other than themselves. I am honored that I have the chance to run interference for them so they can do their jobs in the proper way. No, I’m not on my way out the door.