These past thirty years, the proponents of the Unipolar World have proceeded to methodically dismantle the norms, principles and diplomatic usages to such an extent that contemporary international relations are characterized by social media postings.
First, UN resolutions have been construed to provide a veneer of legality to wars of choice against UN member states such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
These gross violations of AA 2(4) of the UN Charter proceeded out of a deliberate intent to shirk the core principles of the UN Charter such as respect for national sovereignty and working towards the peaceful resolution of international disputes.
In order to manufacture consent, the West then proceeded to subvert UN mechanisms such as the agency for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as the Organization of Security and Cooperation of Europe (OSCE).
The OPCW and the IAEA thus produced reports to justify armed intervention while the OSCE abandoned all pretense of neutrality .
Finally, diplomatic processes such as the Minsk Accords and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), codified in UNSC Resolutions 2202 and 2231, were devised as schemes to respectively allow Ukraine to build up its armed forces in anticipation of military operations against its own population and deceive the Islamic Republic of Iran into surrendering its sovereign right to enrich uranium in the context of its civil nuclear program, respectively.
International Justice Has Failed
At the level of international institutions tasked with the administration of justice, the Nuremberg Principles have been weaponized against the enemies of the West rather than against those responsible for crimes against peace, thus ignoring Chief Justice Robert Jackson’s warnings made during his opening statement at the Nuremberg Trials.
Moreover, the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Netherlands, has also been used as a tool of Western power, by repeatedly engaged in selective prosecution ever since its inception in 2002.
Those two military officials served under Post-Maidan presidents Piotr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelenskyy, who both owe Victoria Nuland and former US ambassador, Jeffrey Pyatt a debt of gratitude for their rise to power following the 2014 coup d’état.
Another high profile individual who has visited Kiev on a regular basis to meet with Ukraine’s all powerful intelligence Chief, Kirill Budanov is former National Security Adviser and Hillary Clinton protege, Jake Sullivan.
Like clockwork, Sullivan was in Kiev a few days prior to the Crocus City Hall Bombing on March 22, 2024.
Budanov is currently subjected to an international arrest warrant on account of his alleged participation in a criminal conspiracy leading to the bombing of the Kerch Bridge on October 8th, 2022.
Of note, crimes against peace do not entail the use of violence. François Hollande and Angela Merkel by never intending to fulfill their obligations to serve as guarantors of the defunct Minsk Agreements, contributed to the collapse of the diplomatic track and the advent of armed conflict. Boris Johnson explicitly flew to Kiev to scuttle the adoption of the just-concluded Istanbul agreement at the early stage of the conflict.
Inertia at the ICJ
The momentum generated by the Russian Federation’s filing of a 522-page report bearing on acts allegedly committed by Ukraine against ethnic Russians seemed to have brought the proceedings initiated by Kiev against Moscow to a grinding halt.
Kiev in a curious twist had predicated the thrust of their argument on the premise that by falsely justifying its military actions in Ukraine on the existence of a threat of genocide committed by Kiev, Moscow was in violation of its obligations to abide by the Convention on the Prohibition on Genocide.
There is now a growing consensus, particular among the Global South and traditionally non-aligned countries, that international system is now under grave threat. As this year’s BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Lula made an ominous statement that ‘international law is now a dead letter.’
Doubling Down
On May 9, 2025, while Moscow was commemorating with its allies in the Global South the 80thAnniversary of its victory against Nazi Germany, the European Union announced in Orwellian fashion that to mark “Europe Day”, it was proud to announce the creation of its own Special Tribunal.
What’s Next for the Russia Federation?
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has been meticulously documenting violations of the laws of war allegedly carried out by members of the Ukraine in the context ofthe Special Military Operation.
At the civil society level, a Commission of Inquiry composed of foreign journalists and activists (the so-called International Public Tribunal) has collected statements from survivors and witnesses bearing on alleged exactions committed by the Ukraine Armed Forces.
Serving as its director since 2022, Maxim Grigoriev first set out to document crimes committed against ethnic Russians living in Ukraine soon after the Maidan Coup d’etat of 2014. He has since published a series of books chronicling what began as his own personal initiative while appearing as a frequent speaker on various State-sponsored platforms.
Whatever one might be tempted to believe as relates to the forsaking of international law in favor of power politics these past thirty years, it would behoove Russia not to follow down this path of illegality.
As such, in judging alleged perpetrators of war crimes and other associated violations of the laws of war, Moscow should avoid a repeat of the sham trial carried out in Iraq under the supervision of US occupying troops. At stake is Moscow’s own reputation in the global arena.
Having ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, it is of paramount importance that in the context of future proceedings, Russia afford the accused a fair trial consistent with the principles announced in AA 14 of the International Covenant on Political and Social rights, AA 10 & 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the positions of the International Law Commission as well as jurisprudential decisions at international customary law.
Failure to abide to these standards will lead future trials to be characterized as war crimes.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is investigating tens of thousands of cases against servicemen of the armed forces and special services of Ukraine. Hundreds of the Ukrainian servicemen responsible for these crimes have given detailed testimony about the killings of civilians and indiscriminate shelling of cities on the orders of their commanders and have already been convicted under Russian law.
At the civil society level, the chairman of the International Public Tribunal for the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis, Maxim Grigoriev, has been documenting Ukrainian crimes in detail since 2014, recording the testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses. The International Public Tribunal includes representatives of civil society from 35 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and India. Now they have recorded the testimonies of 1600 victims and eyewitnesses of Ukrainian crimes. It is especially important that the video recordings of these polls are posted on Telegram, and the identities of each of the witnesses are open to the public and do not object to the re-interview by representatives of any media. The participants of the International Public Tribunal see themselves as the successors of the Russell-Sartre Public Tribunal. Like this tribunal of the 1960s, they do not have the authority to punish anyone, but they see their task in collecting facts and presenting this information to the international community. The most famous case investigated by the Russell-Sartre Tribunal was My Lai Massacre. The mass shooting of civilians by American soldiers in a small village in Vietnam took place more than 60 years ago. Now such an event has become a mass shooting in the city of Selidovo, investigated by Maxim Grigoriev. Arriving there after the retreat of the Ukrainian army, he and his activists found more than a hundred bodies of executed civilians, and dozens of miraculously surviving witnesses told how Ukrainian soldiers killed civilians before the retreat. A detailed report on this was presented by him at an informal meeting of the UN Security Council members according to the Arria formula.
Stories tend to repeat themselves. General Pinochet came to power with the support of Western countries, enjoyed their full support and the love of the media. The now well-known massacres and torture of the opposition, political activists and Chilean journalists were not a popular topic in the European media. But more than thirty years after he came to power in an unconstitutional coup, only his death helped him avoid trial for his crimes, and his inner circle was sentenced to long prison terms.
By supporting the Ukrainian government and President Zelensky, are Western countries repeating the precedent of supporting General Pinochet?
