Oorlog in Oekraïne #925 Van het Oostfront geen nieuws

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:52 schreef Alarmonoff het volgende:

[..]
Zoiets is ziek, maar is het waar?

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Former UN weapons inspector found guilty in online sex case
Scott Ritter, chief inspector in Iraq in 1990s, masturbated in online chat with detective posing as underage girl

Former UN weapons inspector found guilty in online sex case

Scott Ritter, chief inspector in Iraq in 1990s, masturbated in online chat with detective posing as underage girl

A former United Nations weapons inspector caught in an online sex sting has been found guilty of six charges, including unlawful contact with a minor, after exchanging explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl in an online chatroom and then performing a sex act on himself.

Scott Ritter, 49, exchanged sexual messages with a detective posing as an underage girl and masturbated even after the undercover officer stressed during the chat that she was a minor, prosecutors said.

"The jury reached the right decision," assistant district attorney Michael Rakaczewski said after the verdict. "They saw the case for what it is and the defendant for what he is and what he did."

Neither Ritter nor his lawyer, Gary Kohlman, commented outside the court in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

Ritter, of New York, was one of the UN's chief weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. He resigned after accusing the US and UN of failing to get tough with Saddam Hussein. Later, he said Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction, and he became a vocal critic of the US invasion.

He will be sentenced next month. Each of the five charges carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, but Ritter is likely to get much less under sentencing guidelines.

Kohlman acknowledged in his closing argument that jurors were likely to be "troubled and offended" by the graphic chat and video of Ritter that prosecutors played, but they were required to put aside their personal distaste because "this is not a referendum on whether anybody in the courtroom approves of adult chatrooms".

He said the case turned on Ritter's intent.

Ritter took the witness stand on Wednesday and said he believed the person he met in a Yahoo chatroom on 7 February 2009 was an adult acting out her own fantasy.

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Ex-UN inspector gets prison in Pa. sex case
AA former United Nations weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to up to 5 1/2 years behind bars.

former United Nations weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to up to 5 1/2 years behind bars.

Scott Ritter, 50, of Delmar, N.Y., exchanged explicit messages with a detective posing as a 15-year-old girl, then performed a sex act on himself in front of a webcam.

He testified in his own defense that he believed the person he met in a Yahoo chat room in 2009 was an adult acting out her own fantasy.

But a northeastern Pennsylvania jury convicted Ritter in April. On Wednesday, a Monroe County judge sentenced him to 18 months to 66 months in state prison.

Ritter was taken into custody immediately.

Ritter was one of the U.N.'s chief weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.

Ritter had asked for a new trial Wednesday, basing his request on an appeals court ruling in New York that records from two previous incidents in that state in 2001 should not have been unsealed and given to prosecutors in Pennsylvania to be used at his trial. Defense attorney Gary Kohlman argued the New York ruling entitled Ritter to a new trial because prosecutors based much of their strategy on the argument that Ritter had a history of illicit online sex.

"It became, as I feared, the tail that was wagging the dog at trial," Kohlman said in court.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Rakaczewski argued the New York ruling had no bearing on Ritter's conviction and sentence in Pennsylvania.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:54 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Ja Lira heeft een heel kanaal waar hij de dating goeroe uithangt. En Scott Ritter is een veroordeelde pedofiel.

https://www.theguardian.c(...)inspector-online-sex
[..]

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:05 schreef Alarmonoff het volgende:

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Illegale dating advies? op youtube?
Lijkt mij er meer op dat ze een Khashoggi deden.
Ritter heeft niks met Lira te maken maar met de VN.

Gonzalo Lira was NOT a Journalist

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Russia cuts gasoline, diesel exports to offset refinery outages
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has reduced gasoline exports to non-CIS countries to compensate for unplanned repairs at refineries, the Ministry of Energy said on Wednesday, as the country grappled with the impact of fires and drone attacks on its energy infrastructure.

It said gasoline and diesel exports have been reduced in January by 37% and 23% respectively from the same month in 2023.

Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other's energy infrastructure in strikes designed to disrupt supply lines and logistics and to demoralise their opponent as they seek the edge in a nearly two-year-old conflict that shows no sign of ending.

Russia is voluntarily cutting its oil and fuel exports by 500,000 barrels per day in the first quarter as part of efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) to support the energy markets.
The cuts, announced by the energy ministry on Wednesday to countries beyond the Commonwealth of Independent States, are separate and prompted by downstream capacity outages.

Outages include the halt, following what is believed to be a technical incident, of a unit at NORSI, the country's fourth largest refinery, located near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 430 km (270 miles) east of Moscow. It is operated by Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Jan. 27 that repair work would take a month or a month and a half.

Russian energy giant Novatek on Jan. 21 was forced to suspend some operations at the huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal at Ust-luga, as well as "technological processes" at a nearby fuel-producing complex, after a fire, started by what Ukrainian media said was a drone attack.

Russia will likely cut exports of naphtha by some 127,500-136,000 barrels per day, or around a third of its total exports, after fires disrupted operations at refineries on the Baltic and Black Seas, according to traders and LSEG ship-tracking data.

The ministry also said on Wednesday that major Russian oil companies had boosted gasoline production, which resulted in an increase of gasoline supplies to the domestic market in first 25 days of January by 7%, or 150,000 metric tons, year-on-year, and diesel supplies by almost 17%, or 490,000 tons.

The country's inventories for ensuring stable supply of the domestic market amount to 1.9 million tons for gasoline and 3.9 million tons for diesel fuel, up 16% and 7% from January 2023, it said.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:19 schreef Alarmonoff het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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China threatens Ukraine because of Chinese companies added to list of war sponsors
The Chinese ambassador has said that the practice of including Chinese companies in the list of war sponsors will have negative consequences for bilateral relations between Ukraine and China.

Source: Reuters with reference to its own sources

Details: The National Agency on Corruption Prevention has added 14 Chinese companies to the list of international sponsors of war. China has the largest number of companies on this list among all countries in the world.

In particular, the list includes such giants as:
• Alibaba Group;
• Xiaomi Corporation;
• China National Offshore Oil Corporation;
• China Railway Construction Corporation.

The Reuters’ source added that, as a result, China did not put forward any conditions or "time frames" for Ukraine, but simply expressed its position regarding the list.

Another source suggested that Beijing may be linking the issue to Chinese purchases of Ukrainian grain. In 2023, China became the second largest importer of Ukrainian agricultural products among all countries in the world, with total purchases of US$2.22 billion.

According to government data, about 30% of Ukraine's maritime exports, including food, metals and ore, were shipped to China via the new Black Sea shipping corridor created by Kyiv last August.

Background:
• In August 2023, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention added the Chinese group of companies Alibaba Group Holding Limited to the list of international sponsors of war.
• In April 2023, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention added Chinese corporation Xiaomi to the list of international sponsors of war.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:09 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Ik zei niks over illegale dating advies. En met misbruik bedoelde ik niet verkrachting en zo. Meer het wegzetten van vrouwen als lust objecten. En Oekraïense vrouwen als gemakkelijk. Dus hoe mannen misbruik kunnen maken van deze vrouwen. Niet hoe ze hun kunnen verkrachten/aanranden.

Dit is een goede samenvatting over wat voor een kerel Gonzales Lira wel niet was. En dat hij zeker geen onschuldig slachtoffer was zoals het twitter bericht dat jij poste wil beweren.

Gonzalo Lira was NOT a Journalist

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:06 schreef la_perle_rouge het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:27 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Je bent een week te laat met je onzin.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:43 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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Russia Deploys Radio-Jammers To Ground Ukraine’s Drones. Just One Problem: The Jammers Don’t Work.
A Russian mechanized assault in the vicinity of Novomykhailivka, 10 miles west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, should sound alarms in the Kremlin.

The Tuesday assault was small—just three T-72 tanks, seven MT-LB armored tractors and a single BMP-2 fighting vehicle, possibly from the Russian army’s 20th Motor Rifle Division. And its total destruction by Ukrainian drones in the span of three hours isn’t terribly unusual. Most Russian attacks end in drone-inflicted defeat.

No, what should worry Russian commanders is that the Ukrainian drones, apparently from the 79th Air Assault Brigade or the 7th Ranger Battalion, were unbothered by the electronic-warfare gear the Russians usually attach to their vehicles right before an attack.

The E.W. systems broadcast radio noise that, in theory, should scramble the signals by which drone-operators control their two-pound, two-mile-range first-person-view drones, each laden with a pound of explosives.

But during the Tuesday assault, any defensive jamming failed—and the drones swiftly demolished the Russian column. Russian forces “do not have any massive protection against enemy drones,” one Russian blogger complained in a missive translated by @wartranslated. “Everything they install has long been outdated and does not cover the enemy’s new frequencies.”

For friends of a free Ukraine, this is good news. With pro-Russian Republicans in the U.S. Congress blockading U.S. aid to Ukraine, Kyiv’s artillery batteries are starved for ammunition: they’re firing just 2,000 rounds a day, a fifth what Russian batteries can fire.

So Ukrainian troops are replacing artillery with FPV drones, which don’t require precision manufacturing and might cost just a few hundred dollars apiece. Ukraine is building, and flinging at Russian forces, tens of thousands of FPV drones every month.

Jamming has been Russia’s best defense against the swarm of Ukrainian drones, just as it’s been Ukraine’s best defense against a equally dense swarm of Russian drones.

The difference is that Ukrainian jamming apparently still works. Russian jamming, on the other hand, may be failing. “The problem requires emergency measures,” the blogger intoned.

As FPV drones replaced artillery as the most serious threat to Russian ground forces late last year, the Russian military responded by bolting, to its armored vehicles, whatever radio-jammers were available: RP-377 man-portable backpack jammers and more-powerful Volnorez jammers that magnetically stick to the outside of a tank.

There was some risk the jammers would thwart Ukrainian drone operations. “I saw the spectrograms,” Ukrainian drone expert Serhii Beskrestnov wrote after inspecting a captured RP-377. “The interference is very high quality.”

If that happened, it didn’t happen for long. Today Ukrainian drones are flying everywhere, all the time, along the 600-mile front of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine.

While it helps that Ukrainian drone-operators relentlessly have hunted down Russia’s most powerful fixed jammers, it may be even more helpful to Ukraine’s war effort that the shorter-range mobile jammers—Russian troops’ last-ditch defenses—seemingly aren’t jamming much of anything anymore.

Maybe the blogger is right, and Ukrainian operators are hopping frequencies in order to dodge Russian jamming. Or maybe there’s some other trick, such as a built-in artificial intelligence that briefly takes over control of a drone when its human controller gets jammed.

In any event, the Ukrainians seem to have found a viable approach to defensive firepower that buys them some time as their allies scramble to provide more artillery ammo—and as U.S. president Joe Biden explores executive authorities that allow him to overcome pro-Russia Republicans’ opposition to Ukraine’s self-defense.

“It looks like this is the strategy of the Ukrainian armed forces,” a second Russian blogger observed. “Going on the defensive, using drones, fairy tales about a shortage of shells.”

Ukraine’s shell-shortage is real, in fact. But so is its drone-first approach to ground warfare. As Ukraine ramped up robotic strikes, Russia gambled on jammers to protect its troops.

It seems to have been a losing bet.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:36 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[
Hier geven ze aan dat op een andere locatie ook iets in de fik staat.

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A diversion in the Tambov region of teh Russian Federation was carried out by the "Atesh" movement.

As a result, the railway used to transport missiles to Russian troops was discontinued.
ATESH guerrillas carried out a sabotage on the railway in the Tambov region of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the Telegram channel of the movement "ATESH" on 1 February.

30.01.24 An agent of our movement conducted a sabotage on the railway near the settlement of Pervomayskoye, Tambov region. As a result of the arson of the relay cabinet the use of the railway, along which missiles are transported to the arsenal of the Russian Aerospace Forces (in / h / 14272), was stopped, - the message says.

Coordinates of the destroyed object: 52.4512500711, 41.472261350282.

It is reported that for a long time guerrillas have been scouting the routes and logistics schedule of the enemy's military cargo trains.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:19 schreef Alarmonoff het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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Without seeing all border deal details, Speaker Mike Johnson says it is a 'nonstarter'
Speaker Mike Johnson tells ABC News it's "not enough to secure the border."

As Senate negotiators neared an agreement on a long-awaited bipartisan border deal, House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News Tuesday that while he hasn't seen the bill yet, the agreement is a "nonstarter in the House."

"From what we've seen, clearly, what's been suggested in this bill is not enough to secure the border," Johnson told ABC Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott. "And we have to insist -- we have a responsibility, a duty, to the American people to insist that the border catastrophe is ended. And just trying to whitewash that or do something for political purposes -- that it appears that may be -- is not going to cut it and that's a nonstarter in the House."

The border agreement worked out by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., comes as part of a national security spending bill that also includes aid packages for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

On the House floor Wednesday, Johnson criticized the rumored details from the emerging Senate border deal.

"But apparently, we're concocting some sort of deal to allow the president to shut down the border after 5,000 people break the law. Why is it 5,000? If you add that up, that'd be a million more illegals into our country every year before we take remedial measures. This is madness. We should be asking what kind of enforcement authority kicks in at 5,000 illegal a day. The number should be zero," he said.

"Anything higher is simply surrender. Anything higher than zero is surrendering our border, surrendering our sovereignty and our security."

House Republicans have been coming out against the border deal, despite not yet seeing the bill's full text. This comes as former President Donald Trump has encouraged Republicans to reject the deal.

Trump on Monday said that "a border bill is not necessary," blasting the ongoing negotiations.

Johnson said he has spoken with Trump about this issue "at length," but called any allegations that he's trying to kill the bill to give Trump a win for his campaign "absurd."

"We have a responsibility here to do our duty. Our duty is to do right by the American people to protect the people the first and most important job," Johnson told Scott.

During a closed-door meeting with his conference last week, Johnson assured House Republicans that the deal is "dead on arrival" in the House, according to multiple members who were in the room -- leaving big questions about the prospect of additional aid to Ukraine.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is among the House Republicans criticizing the bill.

"I think to really clarify what the President [Trump] is saying -- that this deal sucks," Donalds told ABC News. "It's a bad deal and to give cover to Joe Biden for his terrible policies on the border."

While Senate Republicans continue to work on the border deal with the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, House Republicans are working to impeach him.

The House Homeland Security Committee, led by Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., brought two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Tuesday, arguing the secretary has demonstrated "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" and "breach of public trust."

"Alejandro N. Mayorkas knowingly made false statements to Congress that the border is 'secure,' that the border is 'no less secure than it was previously,' that the border is 'closed,' and that DHS has 'operational control,' of the border (as that term is defined in the Secure Fence Act of 19 2006)," the articles claim.

President Biden told reporters Tuesday that he's exhausted all executive authority to address the immigration crisis at the southern border.

"I've done all I can do," he said as he left the White House.

The president turned up the pressure on Republicans to reach a compromise on Friday, saying he would "shut down" the border when it's overwhelmed, if given new emergency authority through this deal.

"Give me the border patrol. Give me the people, give me the people who judge it. Give me the people who can stop this and make it work," Biden said Tuesday.

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Turkish Banks Close Russian Corporate Accounts Over Secondary Sanctions – Vedomosti
Turkish banks have started closing Russian corporate accounts following threats of secondary sanctions from the United States, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing financial consultants and business owners.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in December announcing secondary sanctions on foreign banks suspected of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.

These warnings prompted Turkish banks to suspend processing payments and terminate relationships with nearly all Russian counterparts, media reported last month, and the move was said to have led to longer processing times for money transfers and delayed or sent back funds.

According to Vedomosti, at least two Turkish banks have begun closing the accounts of a “significant number” of Russian companies and banks after the U.S. threatened to blacklist them.

Two other Turkish banks started issuing 30-day closure notices to their Russian corporate clients who opened accounts after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, the publication added.

“This mainly applies to businesses that used Turkey as a transit jurisdiction for settlements and deliveries, as well as oil and gas traders,” said Iskander Mirgalimov, an international payments consultant for Russian businesses.

Individual clients also face tighter restrictions when opening accounts, including the requirement to maintain a high balance, Mirgalimov told Vedomosti.

Moscow and Ankara are “negotiating to find a solution,” said Alexei Yegarmin, who heads the Russian-Turkish Business Council.

Later on Thursday, the Kremlin blamed “unprecedented, blatant and aggressive U.S. pressure on Turkey” and confirmed “active” talks between Moscow and Ankara were underway.

Turkey’s state banks meanwhile still process payments for non-military-related goods such as food and drugs, Vedomosti reported, noting that the payments are made in national currencies.

In January, at least two Chinese state banks reportedly stepped up compliance on funding to Russian clients amid U.S. threats of secondary sanctions.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:13 schreef Idisrom het volgende:
Trouwens (BTW) Ik zie de topictitel nu. Maar het is volgens mij een misvatting dat de meeste soldaten in de Eerste Wereldoorlog gesneuveld zijn in de loopgraven aan het Westfront. Aan het toenmalige beweeglijke Oostfront sneuvelden een veelvoud aan militairen.
Vooral de Duitsers hadden snel door dat het oversteken van het niemandsland met prikkeldraad een bijna 99% garantie was op doding c.q. zelfmoord.

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Navalny calls on voters opposed to Putin’s re-election to vote at midday across Russia
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny has tweeted his support to a proposal that voters wishing to demonstrate their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin by heading en masse to polling stations at midday on 17 March, the final day of voting in Russia’s presidential election.

“Real people standing in line to vote against Putin” would be a powerful symbol against “fake and fraudulent ‘yes’ votes”, Navalny wrote on Thursday, adding that the “witch” who heads Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, would “fix” the votes.

Such a guerrilla protest would be “completely legal and safe”, Navalny stressed, as protestors would be indistinguishable from Putin supporters who happened to be voting at the same time, leaving the authorities powerless to react.

Public protest in Russia has effectively been illegal since 2014, and can be punishable by up to five years in prison. Navalny argued that merely casting a ballot against Putin was not enough, and that the symbolism of agitation was “more important than voting”.

The public show of support for the idea, which was first proposed by former St. Petersburg Deputy and prominent Kremlin critic in exile Maxim Reznik, followed Navalny’s public call in December for Russians to vote for “anyone but Putin” in March’s election.

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Op woensdag 31 januari 2024 16:36 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/27436
Weer dat geroeptoeter van die gast. Terwijl we donders goed weten dat een internationaal onderzoek nooit de benodigde toegang zullen krijgen. Die krijgen alleen maar te zien wat in het narratief van Rusland past.

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“The plane was shot down, it has already been established for certain, by an American Patriot system. This has already been established by forensics,” Putin said in a televised appearance on Wednesday.

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 18:19 schreef Alarmonoff het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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Op donderdag 1 februari 2024 19:44 schreef Anton91 het volgende:

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Het is wvan 12 januari, inmiddels dus al bijna 3 weken.

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Ukraine Needs Bikes, For Daily Transport And Humanitarian Aid Delivery
“Moving by bike has quickly become an indispensable means of transport.”

The war in Ukraine has displaced or disrupted life for millions of people and devastated much of the country’s transportation network infrastructure – from airports and roads to bridges and railways – challenging everything from public transport to the delivery of food, medication and other critical humanitarian aid.

Border closures, too, have accelerated transportation problems, blocking urgent supplies from reaching those in need, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), a Brussels-based nonprofit umbrella group, noted in a recent newsletter.

#BikesForUkraine, an international campaign, began after the war broke out to provide bicycles that enable the mobility of Ukrainian citizens, volunteer workers, medical staff, social workers, local authorities and other essential personnel.

“Moving by bike has quickly become an indispensable means of transport,” in Ukraine, the cycling group said, and the initiative “has enabled the Chernihiv police to safely patrol the city, social workers to provide essential humanitarian aid, allowed doctors to travel to work, and children to ride to school.”

#BikesForUkraine’s Instagram page shows examples of local family members who have received bicycles through the program. To date, nearly 1600 bicycles have been delivered to more than 60 Ukrainian communities and more than ¤30,000 (over $ 32,000) has been raised.

But its budget is now exhausted, the campaign’s organizers said, and donations are needed if work is to continue. (There is a waiting list for about 1,500 bikes, they said.) Funds are used to buy bikes, components and repairs in Ukraine, and to transport bicycles within the country.

Donations can be given in a number of ways. Individuals can purchase bicycles abroad or in Ukraine and transfer them to U-Cycle (Kyiv Cyclists’ Association), an NGO that is a member of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF); they can also collect and repair used bicycles in their home cities and organize their transfer to Ukraine.

Cycling businesses can donate bicycles, accessories, spare parts, and repair boxes, as well as fund the purchase of bicycles in Ukraine via U-Cycle.

The campaign is a collective effort organized by U-Cycle and five other Ukrainian NGOs: Eco Misto (Chernihiv), Youth Association Extreme Style (Sumy), Urban Reform (Kharkiv), FORZA (Uzhhorod), VeloVector (Odessa).

“A bicycle has become the main mode of transportation for Ukrainian cities that suffered from the Russian military aggression: Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Bucha and others,” #BikesForUkraine noted. “These cities struggle with interrupted or not fully operational public transportation and lack of fuel. Thus the bicycle remains the only mobility option for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the movement of personnel of critically important services.”

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Armenia formally joins international criminal court in snub to Russia
Yerevan obligated to arrest Vladimir Putin if he enters Armenia after move Moscow calls ‘unfriendly step’
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”.

Armenia is home to a permanent Russian military base and is part of the Moscow-led military alliance the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), that consists of several ex-Soviet republics.

Western countries hailed the ratification, which marks the expansion of the court’s jurisdiction into what was long seen as Russia’s back yard.

“The world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in reference to Putin after Armenia ratified the ICC statute in October.

Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has tried to reassure Russia that his country is only addressing what it says are war crimes committed by its neighbour, Azerbaijan, in their long-running conflict, and is not aiming at Moscow.

Kirakosyan said: “Joining the ICC gives Armenia serious tools to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity on its territory.

“First of all, this concerns Azerbaijan,” he added. Yerevan has fought two wars with its arch-foe over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

But Armenia’s move illustrated a growing divide between Moscow and Yerevan, which has grown angry with the Kremlin’s perceived inaction over Azerbaijan’s belligerence.

In September Azerbaijani forces swept through Karabakh – where Russian peacekeepers are deployed – and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.

“Armenia hoped that by joining the ICC, by making such a sensitive step for Russia, it could receive security guarantees from the west,” independent analyst Vigen Hakobyan told AFP.

“But apparently it has strained its Russia ties without receiving real security guarantees from the west.”

Armenia signed the Rome statute in 1999, but did not ratify it, citing contradictions with the country’s constitution.

The constitutional court said in March those obstacles had been removed after Armenia’s adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

Last November, Yerevan formally deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome statute.