Kremlin says appointment of new NATO chief unlikely to change alliance's attitude toward Russia

MOSCOW

The appointment of acting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO secretary-general is unlikely to change the alliance's "hostile" attitude towards Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Peskov called NATO "an alliance hostile to Russia," noting that its members work on "suppressing Russia" both as independent states and the members of the North-Atlantic Treaty.

"It is unlikely that this choice is capable of changing anything in the general line of NATO and the members of the Atlantic alliance, which separately, under the direct US leadership and together, as the North Atlantic Alliance, are working to strategically suppress the Russian Federation. At the moment, this is an hostile alliance for us," he said.

Earlier in the day, the ambassadors of 32 NATO countries at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels approved Rutte's candidacy.

Turning to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, and head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Peskov said Russia does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.

"We are not members of the relevant [Rome] statute. Accordingly, we do not recognize these warrants. We consider them quite absurd, as well as the last two warrants, which concerned the head of state and our children's ombudsman," he added.

On June 25, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Shoygu and Gerasimovon on charges of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

On March 17, 2023, the international tribunal issued warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children's rights, over similar allegations.