The Kremlin may have been trying to undermine the ICJ’s authority by making it a venue for specious legal arguments, say authorities.
Nicaragua’s case against Germany at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in which the Central American country accuses Berlin of facilitating a “genocide” in Gaza, likely came at the behest of Russia, Western intelligence officials and diplomats told POLITICO.
A detailed western intelligence assessment presented to POLITICO determined that Russia, which has close relations with Nicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, likely pushed their allies in Managua to use the so-called Genocide Convention of 1948 to pursue Germany at the ICJ.
The Nicaraguans “have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East,” one of the western intelligence officers said.
…
For Putin, who seems to take a particular delight in trolling the Germans, humiliation may well have been part of the calculus.
Nicaragua shuttered its embassy in Berlin earlier this month as a result of the case. Neither the Nicaraguan mission to the United Nations in New York, nor its embassy in Vienna, which now covers Germany, responded to a request for comment.
The Nicaraguans “have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East,” one of the western intelligence officers said.
Well that’s definitely the most ironic thing I’m going to read for a while.
It really isn’t. Nicaragua is a tiny nation that does barely any trade and is of no significant importance to the Middle East diplomatically nor militarily. This does not apply to the West.
So because Western nations are larger they’ve been entitled to interfere in the Middle East for the last century?
And how much trade needs to occur between two countries to entitle one to interfere with the other?
The point is that Nicaragua would have never done anything like this on their own, because they have barely anything to do with the ME. The West on the other hand does. That’s not entitlement, that’s just a fact. We have a vested interest in what is going on there. Nicaragua is used as a pawn and it’s incredibly transparent that this is happening. Same with South Africa.
It’s a point that only makes sense if you don’t pay attention to international geopolitics.
Small countries have a vested interest in the upholding of international law because they are vulnerable, so they quite often stick their heads up above the parapet for it. E.g. when the Rohingya Genocide occurred in South East Asia a small country in West Africa, The Gambia, are the ones who took them to the ICC.
As for South Africa, it has a very long history of criticizing Israel for its apartheid. Bishop Desmond Tutu made international headlines by calling it an apartheid after his visit to Israel and Palestine. Moreover, during Apartheid South Africa era, Israel was one of the big weapons suppliers to the Apartheid regime (which was at war with its neighbour) when many countries were boycotting it.
The entire African Union are quite sensitive about what Israel does.
If you know anything about history, it makes perfect sense that South Africans would be leading the charge here (which they have done consistently).
The West shoe-horned themselves into the Middle East decades ago. The West currently has a “vested” interest because they’ve made an absolute mess of the Middle East, when there was never a good reason for getting involved in the first place. Historically, the West has done in the exactly what they’re now accusing Nicaragua of.
Additionally, it’s particularly ironic due to America’s historical meddling in Nicaragua.
I’m making no comment on Nicaragua making this move in good faith. I agree it’s obvious that they’re a pawn. I’m only pointing out the hypocrisy.
Don’t rob people in the ME of their own agency. The West has messed up a lot, but so have the locals. Both are at least equally to blame.
Definitely not equally. Responsibility scales with power.
Complain all you like, here we are. Now you think that equity means that new countries should be able to get involved.
I’ve simply pointed out the irony and hipocrisy. I’m making no statement on whether or not Nicaragua should be involved.
Russia is such a fucking pest.
As a european I sure better understand the urge to just roll over a country trying to force it into a democracy nowadays. I mean since a couple of years & yeah fuck putin and his kremlin dictator buddies.
So let me get this correctly, the best evidence they could come up with is that they “have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East” and something that happened in 1979? Wow, propaganda much?
They also cited Nicaragua’s recent push towards authoritarianism modeled after Putin’s regime, and how Russia can use this case as a propaganda talking point point to defend their genocide in Ukraine.
Not mentioned in the article was Nicaragua’s support of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia’s military and intelligence support of Nicaragua, which is also relevant information imo.
To me, it’s pretty clear that it would be to Ortega’s political advantage to continue to do as Putin asks. Even if Russia didn’t ask Ortega to file, it’s pretty obvious a dictator like him doesn’t care about Palestinians and is filing in bad faith to please Putin.
Meanwhile, Canada’s support for Israel has no relation to the close economic, cultural, and political relations Canada has with the US and Europe.
I hate how it seems to be a priority of our government to support Israel and that there isn’t a single party that we could elect who would actually put an end to that support.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A detailed western intelligence assessment presented to POLITICO determined that Russia, which has close relations with Nicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, likely pushed their allies in Managua to use the so-called Genocide Convention of 1948 to pursue Germany at the ICJ.
In recent years, Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega has increasingly modelled his authoritarian regime on Russia’s, drawing inspiration in particular from Putin’s law on “foreign agents.”
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said some 13,000 Palestinian militants had been killed and estimated the civilian death rate to be 1-1.5 for every combatant since Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 massacres.
If Russia is behind the move, there was likely a more pressing motivation for putting Germany in the ICJ dock, according to the intelligence assessment: To try to undermine the court’s credibility in Western countries by making it a venue for specious legal arguments.
Russia ignored the order — the ICJ has no ability to enforce its decisions — but the ruling continues to irk Moscow because it robs Putin’s regime of any pretense of international legitimacy for its war of aggression.
In the meantime, Moscow will use Nicaragua’s case against Germany and the separate genocide proceeding brought by South Africa against Israel to undermine the court’s legitimacy and argue through its propaganda channels that Russia is the victim of a double standard, the western officials said.
The original article contains 844 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I love how everything evil is China or Russia no country in the world has agency and no one can be trusted but Americans, american companies, and mark zuckerberg’s platforms regardless of how much they work with the NSA and how much money they take from the rich to manipulate the poor.
Oh how i love freedom
You sound like a stupid american.
We got stupid too, but yours is so self centric.
