Any move to “wipe the slate clean” for Russia in a peace deal would be “a historic mistake of huge proportions,” the EU justice commissioner tells POLITICO.

Donald Trump’s drive to secure peace in Ukraine must not let Vladimir Putin off the hook for war crimes committed by Russian forces, a top EU official has warned, effectively setting a new red line for a deal.

In an interview with POLITICO, Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for justice and democracy, said negotiators must ensure the push for a ceasefire does not result in Russia escaping prosecution.

His comments reflect concerns widely held in European capitals that the original American blueprint for a deal included the promise of a “full amnesty for actions committed during the war,” alongside plans to reintegrate Russia into the world economy.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
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    1 minute ago

    I wish it was true, but the reality seems to disagree. Trump very much can pardon Putin and anyone else, and will do so if he wants to. The EU may cry, but it will do nothing about it. I’m not one bit happy about this, but that’s just how it is.

    Currently, EU leaders consist of the following types of politicians:

    • American assets,
    • lunatic nationalists who happen to side with the US for a variety of reasons,
    • more or less reasonable (for politician standards), but still afraid to confront the US in any way.

    Any time Washington wants something, they get it from us. Any time they tell Europe to bend over, it does so, lubricant in hand. Want us to completely illegally seize a Chinese company’s Dutch branch, leading to no benefits and severe sanctions from China? Done, daddy.

    It’s a sad state of affairs, but current EU is not prepared to stand up for itself. A combination of US and Russian interference, as well as braindead far-right nationalists have made sure we’re powerless and unable to act on anything significant.

    Empires simply cannot tolerate the existence of a place like the EU. It shows their citizens that they don’t have to be slaves and that not every single minute of life has to suck. Which in turn might cause them to protest, and we can’t have that. How many times have you heard the “employment in the USA vs employment in France” memes? Well, the American Empire has found a reliable solution to this issue. Just destroy France, along with all of Europe, and American slaves will stop complaining about shitty work conditions compared to France!

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      And when the first U S. Official is arrested the Netherlands gets invaded by the US and we fully kick off WW3.

      • puppinstuff@lemmy.ca
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        60 minutes ago

        So you sanction those people so they can’t get so much as a side of fries at Euro Disney if they step out of the US. It’s not justice but it’s something.

  • bcgm3@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

    - The Guy Who Thinks He Can Do Anything

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    I DECLARE PARDON!

    Yeah it doesn’t work that way Donnie. The Hague isn’t in the states last time I checked.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
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      8 hours ago

      Why wouldn’t it work that way when the world has warped itself to suit his whims in almost every other circumstance? Who’s going to stop him?

    • ruekk@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Unfortunately, it does work that way when you’re the nuclear superpower of the world with a sociopath at the helm

    • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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      11 hours ago

      Basically Trumps whole philosophy is “If you have money you’re above the law”. It’s what Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc are banking on while supporting him.

    • Kobibi@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      Well, this is about a potential peace deal which would grant Putin immunity in Ukraine for any war crimes committed there, which theoretically Ukraine would sign. It’s not about Trump using a presidential pardon.

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        1 hour ago

        Ukraine has already stated it is not able to legally sign away territory (a big part of this bullshit “deal”). This is dead in the water unless there is a regime change in Ukraine, something that would likely cause even more issues.

        • Kobibi@sh.itjust.works
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          4 minutes ago

          That’s fine. I’m just replying to commentors thinking that this is referring to a trump domestic pardon. Not in any way supporting the notion

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Trump is as stereotypical American as you can get.
    Ignorant, dishonest, self centered, and only interested in money.
    Kind of the perfect representative for USA.
    Many Americans think American law equals international law, so in this Trump is probably pretty average.

    • lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Every New Yorker hates Trump’s guts, and historically and publicly have since the 1980s. You are absolutely correct to criticize our current government, but the rest of this just feels like frustrated lashing out

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        As a foreigner this is easy to observe, as an American it may not be so obvious.
        But USA is clearly extreme on American exceptionalism.

        The past few years (decade) it has gone down a bit, because the non Republicans are beginning to see it.
        New Yorker can hate Trump as much as they want, many of them they still share some of those fundamental traits.

        • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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          11 hours ago

          America isn’t a monolith. There are a lot of Americans who fit that stereotype. And there are a lot of Americans who never have and never will fit that stereotype.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            You are stating the obvious, but you can still talk about Americans in general.
            And the fact is that there are clear traits and tendencies that are more common among Americans than most other nationalities.
            Just go to youtube, and see a few videos of how Americans react to living in another country.
            You will with a very high degree of certainty see the traits I mention observed when Americans see themselves from an outside perspective from almost any country.

            • Cybersteel@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              I find majority of American tourists to act like trump when they come over here, sure it’s not everyone but it’s plenty enough to have a negative opinion on the US. As well as MK-Ultra.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      The US is 55+ states and dozens of Indian nations all stuck together under one flag. There isn’t a stereotypical person from the States any more than there is a stereotypical European. Putting aside that ‘American’ covers North, South, and Central America.

  • sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    While I like the sentiment, unless the EU is interested in a WWII style total war and invasion of Russia, Putin is never going to be held to account for the invasion of Ukraine.

    The Russian government (Read: Putin and his cronies) are not going to agree to hand Putin over to The Hague. Even if the current war ends on favorable terms for Ukraine, that is never going to look anything like the German or Japanese surrenders. At best, this war ends with Russian military exhaustion and withdrawal. More like the end of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. There will be no push to Moscow, no mass bombing of Russian factories or cities. Just Russian soldiers packing up and going home, leaving death and devastation behind for the survivors of their invasion to deal with.

    Any negotiated peace is going to look pretty similar. It will stop the death sooner at the cost of giving Russia something it’s willing to accept. That’s the way negotiations work. If you want to force the other side to accept your terms, without any compromise, that’s what war is for. Since it seems neither the EU nor the US are willing to engage in a direct confrontation with Russia, then the only choice to end this war early is compromise. And Putin facing accountability is almost certainly not going to be on the table.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      There is no expectation that Putin will ever stand trial for his crimes. That’s not the point. The point is that he should not be allowed to have those crimes swept under the rug. Putin should be a global pariah, like Netanyahu; a man who has to fear setting foot outside his own country because of the very real danger that he could be arrested.

      Just because we can’t punish him, doesn’t mean we have to forgive him.

    • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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      10 hours ago

      There is another option, which is Putin is couped out of office. The new Russian government wants to get rid of Putin and sending him to the Hague would mean he is locked up for life and all the problems Russia has can be blamed on him. It also creates some good will with the Ukrainians for peace negotiations. The Wagner revolt shows that this is certainly possible.