Will Putin keep naval commanders alive after ICC warrant?

Following the International Criminal Court's issuance of arrest warrants on March 5 for former (or not so former) Russian Black Sea Fleet commander Viktor Sokolov and “aviator” Sergey Kobylash, an interesting question arises: will the Kremlin keep them alive?

At least until year-end.

It’s not Putin and not Lvova-Belova, figures of this rank are quite suitable for the role of an inconspicuous and at the same time "sacred" victim for Russia.

Now the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation has entered a new page of its "glorious" history: it not only turned out to be quite "alternatively gifted" in terms of losses and "results", but it is now also a structure that is officially suspected by the international community as a tool for committing war crimes.

With all the corresponding interesting consequences for all its military personnel, at least in third countries.

The most tragicomic thing is that Sokolov, as "anonymous sources" controlled by Russia claimed two weeks ago, was dismissed from the post of commander after the destruction of the Tsezar Kunikov (BDK-64) ship in February.

However, it's suddenly inconvenient for the Kremlin to politically present Sokolov as a "former" commander. Therefore, remarkably, the ICC warrant, potentially preceding his "accidental death," kept Sokolov in his current position.

By the way, in the press release of the ICC, the patronymic of the bloody "fleet commander" was initially announced as "Kinolayevich," not “Nikolayevich”. Who knows, that might become his prison name.

Source

About the author. Borys Babin, Ukrainian scientist, public and political figure, doctor of legal sciences, professor

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.