Okay sure I’m not gonna say he’s wrong because sure given that arresting the head of state of a powerful nation would carry immense consequences I can believe that most countries would just rather not do it, no matter the severity of the crimes, as he said that’s just realpolitik.

But to freely admit that you would ignore your legal obligations when you didn’t have to is just so fucking stupid!

My point of view on this is that the ICC is an arm of the rules based global order, which was constructed by and in the interest of “the west”. Which means this statement delegitimizes the ICC therefore degrading western interests, so it real damn idiotic for the leader of Belgium to say this since it’s essentially the capital of “the west”! Politicians may have a reputation for doublespeak but that’s because there are a great many truths you simply can’t say if you want to further your political interests.

This articles covers some interesting incidents and this wikipedia article is more exhaustive though covers the domestic anti-war events more broadly.

The last round of conscription was meet with uncharacteristically loud pushback from the russian public so pushing ahead with even more is interesting. Is the kremlin that confident in the effect of it’s propaganda? or is it just that desperate?

That’s seems pretty damn ballsy of them since unless they are extremely confident in the jury selection it’s practically guaranteed to result in a hung jury if they know that finding him guilty will result in the most severe verdict.