Russia defies Putin arrest warrant by opening its own case against ICC

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the collegium of the Prosecutor General's office in Moscow, Russia, March 15, 2023. Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

(Reuters) -Russia's top investigative body said on Monday it had opened a criminal case against the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges who issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

The move was a symbolic gesture of defiance, three days after the ICC accused Putin and his children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.