Human rights defenders have sent a submission to the International Criminal Court regarding the crimes of five leading Russian propagandists

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Center for Civil Liberties (CLS) and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group (HRG) sent a submission to the International Criminal Court regarding the commission of hate crimes by Russians against Ukrainians.

The submission talks about the responsibility of five leading Russian propagandists for inciting enmity against Ukrainians: Volodymyr Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan, Dmytro Kiselyov, Dmytro Medvedev and Serhii Mardan.

According to the statement, they all participated in a campaign of hate against the Ukrainian civilian population, encouraging and facilitating Russian war crimes and other atrocities. Oleksiy Gromov, the first deputy head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, is considered to be responsible for their propaganda campaign.

Human rights activists analyzed more than 2,000 fragments of videos with statements by the above-mentioned persons between February 24, 2022 and February 24, 2024, and found more than 300 statements that constitute hate speech, amounting to a crime against humanity in the form of persecution.

The authors of the statement note that the hostile statements of Medvedev, Solovyov, Simonyan, Kiselyov and Mardan constitute persecution, a crime against humanity in accordance with Article 7 of the Rome Statute, and also substantiate the responsibility of Gromov for ordering or authorizing such actions in accordance with Articles 25 or 28 of the Rome Statute.

“The rhetoric of hate played a decisive role in Russia’s criminal campaign in Ukraine. Ukrainian organizations believe that in the context of crimes against humanity, hate speech is a separate offense that needs more attention from the International Criminal Court.

Our report contains enough evidence that confirms the need for further investigation of these actions and, ultimately, the need to issue warrants for the arrest of these persons,” said Ilya Nuzov, head of FIDH’s international justice department.