Russians repeating Bolton's nonsense

This article turned up yesterday.

I have written extensively about Russian abuse of international law - where they parrot Bolton, Rumsfeld and American hawk legal nihilism.

This is what I wrote previously in case you missed it:

Illegal vatnik combatants
Russia is currently involved in a strategic humanitarian advance backwards across the Dniepr. Meanwhile there are reports about Russian stay behind troops. I don’t think they will be difficult to find and caputre considering that Russian genocide, ethnic cleansing, bandenbekampfung and mafia republic pressgangs have cleared all hitherto liberated Ukrai…
Look, the evil DNR and LNR courts used the bullshit illegal combatant/mercenary designation to ‘sentence’ Westerners to death. This is not law. Don’t be a Russian. Even if Aiden was a mercenary (he very very much wasn't) then he would have rights as a civilian under art. 47. In Ukraine a mercenary, the Wagner type, not Aiden, is a criminal and still has rights:

The subject of Russian trials for Westerners, in Azov or not, is covered in our upcoming book. I wrote the appropriate section quite a while ago.1 Its terrifying that my predictions are correct.


  1. I quote Silvia Borelli, ‘Casting Light on the Legal Black Hole: International Law and Detentions Abroad in the “War on Terror.”’, International Review of the Red Cross 87, no. 857 (2005): 39–68, https://doi.org/10.1017/s1816383100181184 and John R. Bolton, ‘The Risks and the Weaknesses of the International Criminal Court from America’s Perspective’, The International Criminal Court, 2017, 459–76, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351146401-18.