While Moscow has publicly rejected the Hague ruling arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin nothing more than a meaningless sheet of paper, some government officials are said to have descended into extreme panic in private conversations after the news broke – with some wondering if whether they will become the next Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels.
That’s according to a new report from the independent outlet Verstkaspoke to sources close to the Kremlin and several sources in parliament about the behind-the-scenes reaction.
The news spread “like fire” in private conversations between officials in the presidential administration, a source close to the Kremlin said, adding that the reactions were “strong, mostly as unprintable”.
“There is a feeling that they [in the West] crossed the line, it was like a slap in the face for all of us,” he said.
Others suddenly began to realize that they might as well be facing war crimes.
“There was an immediate thought that there were not only sanctions against [us], but there are more serious things, which is not being able to leave the country,” a source in a government ministry was quoted as saying. He said he himself did not expect to face any criminal prosecution, but that other members of the government could “probably” be fired.
Two sources in the Russian parliament are said to bear similarities to members of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle who committed suicide before they could be tried during the Nuremberg Trial, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels. One of them also recalled the fate of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of crimes against humanity.
Members of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, discussed with each other how Moscow could effectively respond to the arrest warrant after the news broke, the sources said.
But they came out empty-handed, according to one lawmaker, who admitted: “We haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“This is a big blow to us [the Russian authorities] that our leader is believed to be an international criminal,” a congressional source said.
“On the one hand, it makes you gather around him. On the other hand, it’s as if we were truly globally isolated.”
Another source lamented that the West, he said, had lost all “common sense”. It was “very upsetting,” he said. “I can’t think of anything after [the warrant]I feel angry and sad.
While the Kremlin’s more outspoken mouths have openly rejected the court’s order and claimed it poses no real threat to Putin, lawmakers are advised to keep quiet. silent on the matter and the state news programs barely mention it.
The only coordinated responses came from Russia’s Investigative Committee, which said it had initiated a criminal case against judges of the International Criminal Court and pro-Putin youth groups, who launched a bizarre social media campaign using the hashtag “#WeAreAllPutin.”
