Russia's former president suggested firing a hypersonic missile at The Hague after Putin's ICC arrest warrant: 'Look carefully into the sky'
- Dmitry Medvedev suggested striking The Hague with a hypersonic missile in a furious post on Monday.
- It came after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested striking the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague with one of Russia's hypersonic missiles, days after it issued an arrest warrant for Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
In a lengthy and furious Telegram post on Monday, Medvedev wrote: "It is quite possible to imagine a hypersonic missile being fired from the North Sea from a Russian ship at The Hague courthouse."
The Putin loyalist also wrote mockingly about the court, suggesting that NATO would not retaliate because the court is "only a miserable international organization, not the population of a NATO country."
"That's why they won't start a war either," he added. "They'll be afraid to."
The Netherlands, where the court resides, is a NATO member state. A spokesperson for the ICC told Insider it does not comment on "alleged political statements."
Medvedev also advised the court's judges to "look carefully into the sky."
On Friday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin relating to the "unlawful deportation" of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.
This came a day after the UN denounced the forced deportations as war crimes.
In his post, Medvedev railed against the ICC, saying it is part of a toothless international legal order in the grip of a few "Anglo-Saxon" countries.
The USA, China, India, and Russia are not current signatories to the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty.
Medvedev also claimed that the arrest warrant for Putin heralds the collapse of international law, calling it "a grim sunset of the whole system of international relations."
While the US' own relationship with the ICC has been fraught, on Friday President Joe Biden said the arrest warrant for Putin was justified.
Medvedev, who was once viewed by the West as a potential harbinger of Russian liberalism, has become one of its most vitriolic commentators, as Insider's Sinead Baker previously reported.
In fact, his posts often go beyond the rhetoric offered by Putin himself.
In January, Medvedev proposed stationing a Russian warship, also armed with hypersonic missiles, within striking distance of the mainland US.
He has also made repeated dark hints at Russia's nuclear arsenal, claiming last year that NATO would not take action if Russia detonated a nuclear bomb in Ukraine.