Summary of news
- Russia says arrest of Vladimir Putin is a declaration of war.
- Moscow is ready to take up arms against any nation.
- International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Russian president.
Putin’s arrest is considered a declaration of war ANTON NOVODEREZHKIN / SPUTNIK / AFP 03/22/2023
The arrest of President Vladimir Putin by a foreign country on the basis of the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week would amount to a “declaration of war” on Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned.
“Imagine the situation (…) The head of state of a nuclear power, for example, travels to Germany and is arrested. What is that? A declaration of war on Russia,” said Medvedev, current number two on the Russian Security Council.
If that happens, “all our capabilities like rockets and so on will be directed against the Bundestag, the chancellery and so on,” Medvedev added.
The Haguebased International Criminal Court last week issued an arrest warrant for Putin on war crimes charges related to the “deportation” of Ukrainian children during Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine.
According to Kiev, since the offensive began just over a year ago, more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and many taken to institutions and adoption sites.
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday denounced Moscow’s “threats” after the Russian judiciary announced it would launch criminal investigations into several judges and International Court of Justice Prosecutor Karim Khan.
Earlier in the week, Medvedev threatened the ICC with a missile attack and said judges should “look carefully to the sky”.
Russia, which does not recognize the ICC, considers the arrest warrant against Putin legally “void”.
Tornado wreaks havoc near Los Angeles
A tornado ripped off roofs and dragged vehicles through a Southern California town on Wednesday as a storm hit the western United States, which has already been badly hit by a string of weather events.
The swirling wind mass hit the town of Montebello near Los Angeles, forcing residents to seek shelter. “I drove […] and I saw this tornado ahead of me and had to turn back,” a local shopkeeper told broadcaster KTLA. “The tornado tore off the roof of the building, all the car windows were smashed. Cars were destroyed, it was chaos”
Footage showed part of a roof flying over industrial buildings. Aerial photos showed holes in several roofs, bent or broken pipes and fixtures after the tornado struck, and cars being pulled from parking lots.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said it was investigating the weather event, which it described as “a weak tornado” and another at Carpinteria further north that “damaged about 25 mobile homes”. Tornadoes and violently rotating columns of air that touch the ground are nature’s most violent storms, according to the United States Weather Service.
They can carry wind speeds of up to 480 km/h and destroy a neighborhood in seconds. The weather service estimates that gusts of up to 136 km/h were recorded at both events. “This is a significant tornado by California standards as it struck a populated area and clearly caused havoc,” weather forecaster Daniel Swain said on Twitter.
The tornadoes came on the second day of a severe storm that hit already flooded California with even more water and snow, downing trees and leaving thousands of people without power. Flood warnings have been issued in several communities while other parts are under water.
California has been hit by a dozen atmospheric flows in recent weeks. These moistureladen Pacific weather systems unleashed blankets of snow and torrential rains on western regions that had suffered two decades of historic drought. Scientists say humancaused climate change is exacerbating these climate shocks, causing more intense dry spells and wetter rainy seasons.