Imagine how Vladimir Putin must be feeling. His government hacks the emails of leading Democrats and his friends at WikiLeaks make sure to drip them out in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. In a shocker, the party the Russians didn’t hack wins. Less than a week after the victory, the incoming president tells him he wants to explore greater cooperation against the Islamic State.

Putin must be experiencing déjà vu. In President Clinton’s second term, the relationship began to fray as the U.S. supported the ouster of Russia’s ally in Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, and Russia launched a vicious war against Chechen separatists.

Then in 2001, President George W. Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and found the soul of a decent man. Russia and the U.S. cooperated against al-Qaida after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Then Putin turned his attention to his political foes. His agents poisoned a former Russian intelligence officer in London and his army invaded the Republic of Georgia. By the end of Bush’s presidency, the U.S.-Russian relationship was in tatters.

Not to worry. Americans in 2008 elect Barack Obama, who sets out to bring hope and change. For a few years, things seem to be going OK. Russian forces are still in Georgia. But the Russians agree to a new nuclear-arms-control agenda and to cooperate on disarming Iran. Then in 2013, there is a revolution in neighboring Ukraine. Russia annexes Crimea the following year. In 2015, the Russians have set up air bases in Syria and are bombing the rebels the U.S. trained to fight against the dictator Bashar Assad.

It should be said that we’ve never elected anyone like Donald Trump before. He’s not a professional politician. What’s more, Trump has shown some elasticity when it comes to his promises. We are now assured that he does not intend to deport all 11 million people who are in the U.S. illegally. He told “60 Minutes” Sunday that he would like to keep the part of Obamacare that bars insurance companies from denying coverage to people for pre-existing conditions. So it’s early days.

But the early signs do not look good. According to a statement from the Kremlin, Putin and Trump discussed “joint efforts in the fight against common enemy number one” in a phone call on Monday.

One source close to the transition team told me that it’s unclear what this would mean in terms of actual policy. In the broadest strokes, it would entail joint military operations in Syria against Islamic State positions and the lifting of sanctions Obama imposed for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The policy of ridding Syria of the dictator who is barrel-bombing its citizens will be jettisoned. Trump and Putin will once again reset U.S.-Russian relations.

If Trump would like a road map on how to accomplish this reset, he should talk to Secretary of State John Kerry. In September, Kerry believed he had a deal for a one-week cease fire, which would have built confidence between the various forces in Syria. After that, the U.S. would begin to share targeting information with Russia to go after the Islamic State and al-Nusra, a group that until recently was al-Qaida’s franchise in Syria.

That plan soon fell apart. Less than two weeks after Kerry reached his cease fire, the Russians bombed an aid convoy trying to deliver food and medicine to the besieged city of Aleppo.

Perhaps Trump believes he can succeed where Kerry failed. That’s what Bush and Obama used to say. Just as Bush overlooked Russia’s bloody war in Chechnya and Obama overlooked Russia’s occupation of Georgia, Trump would be overlooking Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Syria. This pattern gives Moscow the impression that it can wait out the sitting president and wipe the slate clean with whomever replaces him.

Trump may face other problems, too. Already his phone call with Putin has raised alarm bells in Congress. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee who will vote on Trump’s nominations for top Pentagon posts, issued a rebuke on Tuesday.

“At the very least, the price of another ‘reset’ would be complicity in Putin and Assad’s butchery of the Syrian people,” McCain said in a statement.

McCain’s view is closer to many in Trump’s own party, who were relentless critics of Obama’s reset. As one Republican wrote in 2011, “The results of Obama’s pandering to Russia have been a total disaster.” The author warned about Putin’s plans to create a rival to the European Union with Central Asian countries and excoriated Obama for giving up missile-defense positions in the Czech Republic and Poland. He lamented the fact that Russia had quietly encouraged other countries to oppose the U.S. position on Iran while pretending to cooperate with the U.S.

The man who wrote those words was Donald Trump. They are from his 2011 book, “Time to Get Tough.” The incoming president would do well to take his own advice.</s>President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone conversation Monday that relations between their countries were “unsatisfactory” and vowed to work together to improve them, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said the two men discussed combining efforts in the fight against terrorism, talked about “a settlement for the crisis in Syria” and agreed that their aides would begin working on a face-to-face meeting between them.

Trump’s office later said that Putin had called to “offer his congratulations” and that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, “strategic economic issues” and the long-term relationship between the two nations.

The president-elect spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign, praising him as a stronger leader than President Barack Obama and saying the two countries should join together to fight terrorists, particularly the Islamic State in Syria.

Those views put Trump at odds with many GOP defense hawks, who have praised his promise to increase military spending but are uniformly suspicious of Moscow and have denounced Russian actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Syria. The offer of cooperation could also immerse Trump in a deep controversy with the Pentagon, where military and civilian leaders have strongly opposed collaboration with Russia, particularly in Syria.

U.S. intelligence officials have also expressed concern, noting that the Kremlin is believed to have been involved with hacking the email accounts of prominent Democrats, in hopes of injecting chaos in the U.S. electoral process and perhaps swaying the outcome of the vote.

Trump’s conversations with Putin and other world leaders came as protests continued for a sixth straight day in major cities and on college campuses over last week’s election results, in which Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

He also faced escalating criticism over his appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist at the White House. Bannon has been denounced by a chorus of advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views.

“Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Calif., said in a statement. “There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration.” Trump allies have dismissed the accusation.

Obama, in his first news conference since the election, declined to comment on Bannon and sought to reassure the country and the international community that Trump is committed to governing in a more realistic and pragmatic fashion than he displayed on the campaign trail. Obama said Trump pledged in their conversation last week to maintain U.S. strategic relationships, including the NATO alliance.

At the same time, Obama urged the president-elect to reach out to groups representing minorities and women , many of whom have felt slighted by his candidacy.

“One of the great things about the United States is that when it comes to world affairs, the president, obviously, is the leader of the executive branch, the commander in chief, the spokesperson for the nation, but the influence and the work that we have is the result not just of the president. It is the result of countless interactions and arrangements and relationships,” Obama said. “… And there is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world. That will continue.”

Trump has signaled in numerous ways that he will not hew to many of the norms of past presidents, from declining to release his tax returns to relying on his family as key advisers. Previously, he has said he would avoid conflicts of interest as president by turning his business over to his children.

Since his victory last week, Trump has received congratulatory calls from a number of foreign leaders, including some he sharply criticized during the presidential race, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sunday night, after he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump’s office said that he “believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward.”

Trump’s relationship with Russia may be one of his trickiest to navigate.

Although the statement released by his office contained few details and did not mention Syria or other specific issues, it said Trump told Putin “that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the People of Russia.”

In addition to praising Putin, Trump has indicated that closer relations with Russia would keep the Kremlin from establishing tighter ties with China. He has appeared to absolve Russia from responsibility for intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, and during the campaign repeatedly questioned the relevance of NATO, which has charged Moscow with engaging in provocative air and sea actions on the alliance’s eastern flank.

Giving Putin a free pass on those issues would run directly counter to the Russia policy of the Obama administration, which has, among other things, called for an international war-crimes investigation of Russia’s actions in Syria. It could also undermine current European negotiations with Moscow over Ukraine, as well as support for U.S. and E.U. sanctions.

Russia is interested not only in getting the sanctions removed but also in obtaining equal status as a player in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Moscow is the primary supporter, along with Iran, of President Bashar al-Assad. In September 2015, one year after the United States began bombing Islamic State targets in Syria, Putin ordered Russian jets into operation against “terrorist” targets there.

Most Russian airstrikes, however, have targeted U.S.-backed opposition forces fighting against Assad and, according to the United Nations, have killed hundreds of civilians. The United States and its European allies have called for an international investigation of Russia for war crimes.

Obama administration offers to coordinate U.S. counterterrorism strikes against the Islamic State in Syria with Russia, if the Russians would stop bombing opposition and civilian targets, have repeatedly failed to stop the carnage. Any cooperation with Russia would also put the United States on the side of Iran, whose activities in the region Trump has vowed to stop.

Also controversial was Trump’s decision Sunday to name Bannon as chief strategist, a move condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Capitol Hill Democrats and some Republican Trump critics.

Trump’s staff brushed off the criticism Monday, saying Bannon is a former naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive who has been a measured voice behind the scenes at the campaign.

“That’s not the Steve Bannon that I know, and I’ve spent a lot of time with him,” Trump’s new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said on MSNBC, responding to allegations of racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism. “… He was a force for good on the campaign at every level that I saw, all the time.”

Kellyanne Conway, who worked closely with Bannon as Trump’s campaign manager, also defended him. “He’s been the general of this campaign,” she told reporters as she arrived Monday at Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with the president-elect.

Asked whether Bannon needed to explain his connections to the alt-right movement, which includes many white nationalists and white supremacists, Conway said: “I’m personally offended that you think I would manage a campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies. It was not - 56 million-plus Americans or so saw something else… . You should really focus on the will of the people, which was to elect Donald Trump the president.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., sought to calm the fears many Americans still hold about Trump’s election.

“There is a lot of hysteria and hyperbole,” Ryan said during an interview Monday with his hometown radio station, 1380 Big AM in Janesville, Wisconsin. “I would tell people to just relax - things are going to be fine.”</s>Vladimir Putin has signed an order to have Russia withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid calls for his military to be referred over air strikes backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the annexation of Crimea.

The President instructed Russia's foreign ministry to notify the United Nations of the country's refusal to be subject to the body's activity on Wednesday, following the same move by Gambia, South Africa and Burundi.

State media reported that the government was pulling out of the 2002 Rome Statute, which establishes the International Criminal Court's status and powers, although the Kremlin never ratified the agreement it signed in 2000.

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“The International Criminal Court has not justified hopes placed upon it and did not become a truly independent and authoritative judicial body,” a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said.

A statement claimed that Russia "consistently advocates that people guilty of grave offences must be held accountable" and took part in developing laws against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Francois Hollande, the President of France, called suggested that Russia should face war crimes charges over its bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo last month.

“These are people who today are the victims of war crimes,” he told French television amid hundreds of reported civilian deaths.

“Those that commit these acts will have to face up to their responsibility, including in the ICC.”

Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

It was the latest call parties in the conflict to be prosecuted by the ICC, after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to refer the Assad regime in 2014.

Both Russian and Syria have denied deliberately killing civilians or breaking international law in the Syrian civil war, saying they are targeting terrorist groups.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued an appeal to all countries attempting to withdraw from the ICC on Wednesday.

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He said those making the attempt were seeking to “desert victims of the most abominable international crimes” and could not claim their action was based on principle.

“If the State Parties, who apparently have been masquerading in recent years as countries devoted to criminal accountability, want to leave, then they should leave,” Mr al-Hussein added.

“But we are not convinced their position is based entirely on principle. Quite the opposite: it appears to aim more at protecting their leaders from prosecution.”

The commissioner said there was “no substitute” for the ICC, which he hopes will be eventually accepted universally.

“By withdrawing from the Rome Statute, leaders may shield themselves with immunities – but it will be at the cost of depriving their people of the protection of a unique and essential institution,” he warned.

“We face a choice. We can safeguard our societies by standing firm on the principles of justice which anchor this institution.

“Or we can cast away the moorings of law laid down to save the world from horror – and turn away from the screams, as impunity overwhelms men, women and children in wave upon wave of violence.”

The ICC is intended to prosecute and bring to justice those responsible for the worst violations of international law - genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

But far only African defendants have been put on trial and a number of countries including the US, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey have not signed the treaty.

Like Russia - Egypt, Iran and Israel signed but failed to ratify the agreement, making it unlikely their governments could ever be prosecuted by the court.</s>What do voters in Moldova, Bulgaria and the United States have in common? They all elected presidents this month who are sympathetic to Russia and its dictatorial leader, Vladimir Putin.

Tiny Moldova has Igor Dodon, who has promised to pursue closer ties with Moscow and turn away from the European Union – a position that stands in polar opposition to that of the country’s current, and very corrupt, government.

In Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, an outsider voted in by people who are also tired of corruption and who believe closer economic ties with Russia can turn their prospects around, is calling for an end to EU sanctions on Moscow.

Related: Russia will gain from a Trump presidency. Other countries? Not so much.

Before the election: Follow the money to see why Putin wants a Trump victory

And in the U.S., president-elect Donald Trump has a clear preference for Mr. Putin’s policies and desires over those of the EU and the NATO alliance. He has also signalled that he is willing to accept Russia’s unlawful annexation of Crimea, is indifferent to Russia’s military adventurism in Eastern Ukraine, and that he may lift American sanctions related to those incursions.

On the Syrian front, Mr. Trump has again allied himself with Mr. Putin, an avid supporter of the Assad regime, contradicting U.S. policy. Mr. Putin has returned the love. He was the first leader to congratulate Mr. Trump after his election win, and late last week the president-elect was made an honorary Cossack.

The situation is grim. A U.S. president who allows a country to invade and annex a neighbour without sanction is a grave threat to world stability. Mr. Trump’s indifference to national sovereignty plays directly into the hands of Mr. Putin, a master manipulator who learned in the KGB how to destabilize regimes (his fingerprints are all over the release of damaging e-mails stolen by Russian hackers from the Democratic Party’s computers).

His actions in Ukraine and Syria, including the menacing deployment of navy forces off the coast of Syria, have been calculated attempts to see how far he can push the West.

To date, there has been no pushback, other than strong condemnation, which is meaningless to Mr. Putin. And now there is an inexperienced and uninformed populist in the White House who is open to lifting U.S. sanctions and abandoning America’s allies in Europe. Mr. Putin may well feel that he won the election.</s>(CNN) Russia says it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) under a directive signed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the ICC had "failed to meet the expectations to become a truly independent, authoritative international tribunal," in a statement released Wednesday.

It described the ICC as "ineffective," adding that "during the 14 years of the court's work it passed only four sentences having spent over a billion dollars."

Russia also criticized the court's handling of the country's five-day conflict with neighboring Georgia in 2008, saying "we can hardly trust the ICC in such a situation."

Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte offered Putin his support before he left for APEC in Peru, also threatening to pull out of the court.

"They withdrew their membership. I might follow," he said in a statement to the media. "Why? It's us small countries that get beaten up."

He reiterated his intention to align with China and Russia. "If Russia or China will decide to create a new world order, I will be the first to join," he said.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said in a statement that "membership of the Rome Statute is a voluntary and sovereign decision which is the prerogative of all states," adding "the ICC is respectful of each states' sovereignty."

Under Wednesday's directive, President Putin instructed his Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform the UN Secretary General that Russia no longer intends to become a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.

Russia signed the treaty in 2000, but did not ratify it, according to the Russian Legal Information Agency. The Rome Statute has been ratified by 123 countries.

Based in the Hague, Netherlands, the ICC comprises 124 states from around the world. It is the "court of last resort" and tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.

The announcement comes days after the ICC published a damning verdict on Russia's actions in neighboring Crimea.

Russia annexed Crimea, a territory in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, in 2014 following tensions with its neighbor.

Russia has carried out airstrikes in Syria since September 2015 in coordination with President Bashar al-Assad's regime.</s>If Putin can do it, why can't he?

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said the Philippines might withdraw from the International Criminal Court - an announcement that served his twin aims of flattering Russia and expressing disdain for critics of a "drug war" that's left thousands dead.

Facing condemnation for airstrikes in Syria and the annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree to have Russia withdraw from the court. In recent months three other countries - South Africa, Burundi and Gambia - have also said they plan to leave.

Now Duterte may follow. "They are useless, those in the International Criminal [Court]," he told reporters on Thursday. If Russia and China want to form a "new world order," the Philippines would be the first to join, he said.

The whole thing is classic Duterte - an angry, off-the-cuff response to criticism that may or may not result in an actual change.

The president of the Philippines came to power this summer on a promise to "kill all" the country's drug dealers and users. In his first four-and-a-half months on the job, thousands of Filipinos have killed in the name of his anti-drug campaign, either shot in late night raids or gunned down by masked assassins, often after being named by police.

Duterte has not taken kindly to questions about the killing - especially from the U.S. At a summit in September, he blasted President Obama, lecturing him on colonialism and using a slang term that translates as "son of a whore." He's since repeatedly threatened to end U.S.-Philippine military cooperation and align himself with China and Russia without actually notifying the U.S. Embassy of any new policy.

It's no surprise that Duterte isn't a fan of the ICC. In October, Fatou Bensouda, an ICC prosecutor, said she was watching the Philippines for signs of officials "ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing" to crimes against humanity.

"I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage state forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force," she said.

Duterte on Thursday set off for an APEC summit in Lima, Peru, where he reportedly plans to meet China's Xi Jinping and his new pal, Putin.</s>Russian President Vladimir Putin heads a meeting on military industry issues in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday to withdraw Russia from the International Criminal Court, which rules on such grave charges as genocide and crimes against humanity.

Russia in 2000 signed the Rome treaty that established the Hague-based court but never ratified it.

Putin's decree, published on the Kremlin's website, comes a day after the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee approved a resolution condemning Russia's "temporary occupation of Crimea" and blamed Russia for rights abuses such as discrimination against some Crimean residents, such as Tatars.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 from Ukraine following a hastily called referendum, a move that led to crippling Western sanctions. A separatist insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine the following month, backed by Russia.

The ICC on Monday issued a preliminary report where it described what happened in Crimea as "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, explained the withdrawal by "national interests" and argued that since Russia never ratified it Wednesday's decree was just a formality. Peskov also dismissed the ICC's accusations of an "armed conflict" in Crimea, arguing that Crimea joined Russia after a legitimate popular vote.

Russia's foreign ministry insisted in a statement that Russia wants everyone implicated in grave international crimes to face justice but expressed frustration over the court's work in recent years.

"The court has unfortunately failed to match the hopes one had and did not become a truly independent and respected body of international justice," the ministry said, adding that in the ICCs' 14 years of work "only four verdicts" have been passed while $1 billion was spent on expenses.

Just hours before Russia's announcement, the U.N. human rights chief made a spirited defense of the ICC, entreating countries not to leave it. Several African nations have recently announced plans to leave the treaty.

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Supporters of the International Criminal Court appealed for unity Wednesday in the aftermath of three African nations announcing plans to withdraw and Russia symbolically turning its back on the court.

The departures of the African states — South Africa, Burundi and Gambia — buzzed through the corridors on the first day of the annual meeting of the court's member states, the Assembly of States Parties, in The Hague. Before their announcements, no country had ever left the court, which was set up in 2002 as the first criminal tribunal with a global reach.

Russia snubbed the court Wednesday when President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to withdraw from the court. However Moscow never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court, despite signing the treaty in 2000, meaning Russia wasn't a member.

The court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, sought to downplay the impact of the departures, saying, "this is not a crisis for the Rome Statute system, but a set-back in our joint efforts towards achieving a more peaceful and just world."

Bensouda, who comes from Gambia, said that "to address these crimes and deliver justice to victims across the world, it is essential that states' participation in the Rome Statute is not only maintained and reinforced, but enlarged."

Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion used his speech to the 124-nation assembly to deliver an impassioned plea for support for the court, saying it is necessary to ensure accountability for those who commit the most serious crimes.

"We created the court together. We must keep it together," he said.

But South African Justice Minister Michael Mathura continued his country's criticism of the court, saying it is ignoring atrocities in other parts of the world. All but one of the court's full-scale investigations are in Africa, though the majority were referred to the court by the African countries themselves and two by the U.N. Security Council.

"They choose to turn a blind eye and rather focus on one geopolitical space to the exclusion of all others," Mathura told reporters in The Hague. "That, they must explain. The principle of universality of the application of rule of law has to be at the heart of the institution. If they are not willing to uphold that principle, their credibility will continue to be eroded."

The court has been criticized for not stepping in to prosecute atrocities in Syria, but it doesn't have automatic jurisdiction there as the country is not a member of the ICC. A resolution by the U.N. Security Council to refer the Syrian war to the ICC was vetoed in May 2014 by Russia and China.

The African anger also stems from the fact that the ICC went after two sitting heads of state in the continent, Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. The court ultimately withdrew all charges against Kenyatta while al-Bashir remains a fugitive.

Human Rights Watch urged member states not to water down the court's core principles, such as its refusal to recognize head of state immunity, in a bid to prevent more departures.

"The ICC withdrawals risk becoming a bargaining chip by countries looking to make the world safer for abusive dictators," said Elizabeth Evenson, HRW's associate international justice director. She urged ICC members to "make clear the court's mandate is not up for sale."

Putin's decree, published on the Kremlin's website, came a day after the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee condemned Russia's "temporary occupation of Crimea" and blamed Russia for rights abuses such as discrimination against some Crimean residents.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 from Ukraine following a hastily called referendum, a move that led to crippling Western sanctions. A separatist insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine the following month, backed by Russia.

The ICC on Monday issued a preliminary report where it described what happened in Crimea as "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

"Russia never demonstrated any genuine intention to ratify the Rome Statute, and this announcement appears as nothing but contempt for the aims of the ICC - putting an end to impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - and is an affront to all victims of these appalling crimes," Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International Russia, said in a statement.

Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.</s>The International Criminal Court has been used by real criminals to remove uncooperative leaders around the globe. Russia is leaving the fold. More African countries are leaving, too.

The Old World Order continues to crumble…

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order on Russia’s refusal to take part in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, according to a document published on the Russian government’s official portal for legal information.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Putin instructed Russia’s Foreign Ministry to send a relevant notification to the UN secretary-general. The Rome Statute, which took effect in 2002, is the basis for the International Criminal Court’s activity. Russia signed the international treaty in 2000 but has not ratified it so far. “The International Criminal Court has not justified hopes placed on it and did not become a genuinely independent and authoritative body,” the document stated.

Russia is not the first to do it in the last 2 months.

Gambia is the latest African country deciding to pull out of International Criminal Court

NAIROBI — Gambia has announced that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court, the third African country to declare its departure in just two weeks.

Explaining the country’s decision, Information Minister Sheriff Bojang said on state television late Tuesday that the global judicial body was really “an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans.”

Last week, Burundi announced its intention to leave the court, and on Friday South Africa did the same. There are worries that this could be the beginning of an African exodus from the court, a dwindling membership on a continent with a long list of conflicts and human rights abuses.

Experts believe Kenya, Namibia and Uganda could be among the next countries to leave the court.

Why is South Africa pulling out of the International Criminal Court?

South Africa announced on Friday that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court. This makes it the second country this week to pull out, after Burundi filed to leave on Tuesday.

South Africa argues that a commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict through dialogue involves hosting foreign leaders on its soil – including, at times, ones who have run afoul of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC binds member countries to turn in visitors wanted for alleged crimes, however.

The departures may be a sign that some African nations have lost faith in the ICC. The Court has faced repeated criticism for allegedly pursuing its own agenda with court cases, which some Africans believe disproportionately target the continent.

All but one of the ICC’s 10 investigations have been based in Africa. All five of the Court’s substantive verdicts have been against African suspects. Though cases against non-African countries, including Britain, are undergoing preliminary examinations, the trend has led to calls for an African regional court.

The push to leave the ICC began when the Court indicted Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta in 2007, charging him with crimes against humanity after more than 1,000 people died in post-election violence. The case ultimately failed because of lobbying, bribery, and allegations that witnesses had been intimidated. But it frustrated African countries, which largely saw the charges against Kenyatta – a sitting president – as a form of international intervention in the affairs of a sovereign country.

This existence of this grossly lopsided world criminal court was ratified by Russia and 120 others, but not the United States and Israel.

The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The ICC is intended to complement existing national judicial systems and it may therefore only exercise its jurisdiction when certain conditions are met, such as when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute criminals or when the United Nations Security Council or individual states refer investigations to the Court. The ICC began functioning on 1 July 2002, the date that the Rome Statute entered into force.

The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression.

Following years of negotiation, aimed at establishing a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals accused of genocideand other serious international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, the United Nations General Assembly convened a five-week diplomatic conference in Rome in June 1998 “to finalize and adopt a convention on the establishment of an international criminal court”.[9][10]

On 17 July 1998, the Rome Statute was adopted by a vote of 120 to 7, with 21 countries abstaining.[6] Because the way each delegation voted was officially unrecorded, there is some dispute over the identity of the seven countries that voted against the treaty.[11] It is certain that the People’s Republic of China, Israel, and the United States were three of the seven because they have publicly confirmed their negative votes; India, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen have been identified by various observers and commentators as possible sources for the other four negative votes, with Iraq, Libya, Qatar, and Yemen being the four most commonly identified.[11]

On 11 April 2002, ten countries ratified the statute at the same time at a special ceremony held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City,[12] bringing the total number of signatories to sixty, which was the minimum number required to bring the statute into force, as defined in Article 126.[3] The treaty entered into force on 1 July 2002;[12] the ICC can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date.[13] The statute was modified in 2010 after the Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda, but the amendments to the statute that were adopted at that time are not effective yet.

The Rome Statute is the result of multiple attempts for the creation of a supranational and international tribunal.

The ICC is a major component of the planned New World Order administered by a One World Government controlled by the Vatican.

The monopoly of Africans in the List of Indictees and Convicted [here], and the absence of any case filed against the perpetrators of the “war of terror” strongly indicate that this is not a court of justice at all.

So, that, the only recourse is to create our own independent Tribunal…

Lawsuit Against Bush and Blair for War Crimes? International Lawyers Seek Justice for Iraqis

International lawyers and activists converged at a conference titled The Iraq Commission, in Brussels, Belgium, April 16 and 17, with the primary aim of bringing to justice government officials who are guilty of war crimes in Iraq.

“Within a few days of this, a lawless atmosphere developed within my unit,” Ross Caputi, a former marine who took part in the brutal November 2004 siege of Fallujah told the Iraq Commission. “There was a lot of looting going on. I saw people searching the pockets of the dead resistance fighters for money. Some people were mutilating corpses.”

The conference represents the most powerful and most current organized attempt in the world to bring justice to those responsible for the catastrophe in Iraq, and included powerful international lawyers like International Court of Justice lawyer Curtis Doebbler and Louie Roberto Zamora Bolanos, a lawyer from Costa Rica who successfully sued the government of his country for supporting the war in Iraq.

Their goal for the conference was to begin taking concrete steps toward international lawsuits that will bring former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President George W. Bush, along with those responsible in their administrations, to justice for the myriad war crimes committed in Iraq.

… While the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, former president George W. Bush, along with several members of his cabinet including Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, to name but a few, are guilty of war crimes for their roles in creating the conditions for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, according to lawyers at the conference.

“Lest current events cloud principles, and in order to restore focus on the rules of international rules, such as state responsibility, human rights, war crimes, crimes against humanity, there will be no justice for the victims of this crime against peace,” Al-Mukhtar stated, in concluding his opening remarks. “We will discuss practical approaches to ensure accountability and put an end to impunity.”

Tun Mahatir Muhammad, the fourth prime minister of Malaysia (and also the longest-serving prime minister of the country), backs the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalize War, which aims to make all acts of war illegal. Mahatir provided the conference a video message for the occasion.

“We must criminalize war because we consider the killing of one person by another as murder, and we are even prepared to punish him by taking his life,” Mohammed said. “But if you kill a million people in war, it is glorified, and the killers are given medals and statues and honored. There is a contradiction here, and it is time that killing be made a crime, whether it be in peace or in war. And if it is a crime, whoever starts an aggressive war should be considered a criminal and tried in a court of law. That is why our tribunal has tried Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair and found them both guilty as war criminals.”

… “This ‘war without borders’ is being carried out at the crossroads of the most serious economic crisis in world history, which has been conducive to the impoverishment of large sectors of the world population,” he said. “The Pentagon’s global military design is one of world conquest. The killing of civilians is part of that agenda. The US agenda in the Middle East is to change countries into territories, this is the basis of destabilizing country after country across the world, and instituting PAX Americana.”

Chossudovsky believes that US worldwide militarization is part of a global economic agenda, and the invasion of Iraq was but one component of this agenda.

… the importance of the commission and of the work activists and lawyers have ahead of them, as they strive to bring justice to George W. Bush, Tony Blair and all other members of their cabinets who are responsible for the violations of international law that have occurred, and continue to occur, in Iraq.

“There has been a rollback of international law,” Nijar explained. “And this is why the role of the people’s tribunal now takes on an important role. Because the people alone are the motivating force in making world history.”

In short, it is a modern day Jesuit Inquisition aimed at eliminating all enemies of the Holy Crown.

Can we expect a Donald Trump to rise to the occasion and bring justice to the people of Iraq, and for all those Americans who died during and after WTC 911, by going against his own party by ordering the arrest and prosecution of the Bushes, et.al.?

Will he follow other world leaders who are already moving away from the Pyramid of Satanists into Knights of the Roundtable, in order to create a multipolar world?

Aside from the fiat monetary scam and bloodsoaked petrodollar, another significant source of funds for the Nazionist Khazarian Mafiais the “healthcare” industry which registered a whopping $3.09 trillion in 2014, and is projected to soar to $3.57 trillion in 2017, in the US alone. We believe that this is just a conservative figure.

We can all help the revolution by avoiding all Khazarian pharmaceutical drugs, defeat any viral attack and scaremongering, like the Zika virus, easily by knowing how to build our own comprehensive antiviral system. Find more about how we can kill three birds with one stone, right here.</s>Moscow has never ratified the world's only permanent war crimes court, but in a heavily symbolic move on the opening day of the ICC's annual meeting, it said it was formally withdrawing its signature to the tribunal's founding Rome Statute.

"The court did not live up to the hopes associated with it and did not become truly independent," Russia's foreign ministry said, describing its work as "one-sided and inefficient".

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday threatened to follow in Russia's footsteps and pull his country out of the ICC, incensed at foreign criticism of his deadly drug war.

Speaking in his home town of Davao city in the southern Philippines shortly before flying to Peru for a regional summit, Duterte said: "They (Russians) may have thought the International Criminal Court is (useless), so they withdrew their membership."

The Philippines is among 124 countries that are members of the UN-backed ICC, the world's only permanent war crimes court.

The move by Russia to pull out of the ICC came only days after The Gambia on Monday formally notified the United Nations it was leaving the international court, following in the footsteps of South Africa and Burundi.

"In a world criss-crossed by violent extremism... it is urgent and necessary to defend the ideal of justice for all."

The tribunal opened in 2002 in The Hague as a court of last resort to try the world's worst crimes where national courts are unable or unwilling to act.

With Russia and China having blocked UN moves to refer war crimes in Syria to the ICC for investigation, Kaba acknowledged some believed international justice was marred by double standards.

There have long been accusations of bias against African nations. And Kenya, Namibia and Uganda have also indicated they are considering pulling out of the Rome Statute.

South Africa's Justice Minister Michael Masutha told the assembly the decision to quit "was not taken lightly" by his country, which had played a major role in drawing up the founding statute.

He argued South Africa had been treated unfairly by the court when it did not arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, even though the ICC has issued an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.

Pretoria had found itself caught in a dilemma, with "conflicting obligations" to uphold both the ICC's rules and international law granting immunity to heads of state, Masutha said, adding his country "would not become a safe haven for fugitives."
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a symbolic order to withdraw Russia's signature from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid calls by pro-rebel western Non-governmental organisations for an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Syria.