Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an executive order to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Russia will remove its signature from the founding treaty of the organization, which had been on the papers since 2000 but were not ratified.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the ICC did not serve its purpose effectively and that "during the 14 years of the court's work it passed only four sentences having spent over a billion dollars."
The decision by Russia also came a day after the ICC said in a report released this week that Crimea and Sevastopol are in a situation amounting to "an ongoing state of occupation."
Recently many African countries have also withdrawn from the ICC.
The United States is not a participant of the ICC, even though it had signed the treaty also known as the Rome Statute in 2000. The US withdrew its intent of ratification in 2002. The Obama administration sought to cooperate with the ICC when it sent a US delegation to attend the annual meeting of the Assembly of States Parties in The Hague in 2009.
"The U.S. also signed but has not ratified the Rome Statute [just like Russia until recently]. Basically, they will not allow their citizens to be tried by anyone except the American courts," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Politics magazine.
The Rome Statute was ratified by 123 nations. Some of the countries which have not signed or ratified the treaty include India, China, and Indonesia.
Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte also stated his intent to pull out of the ICC.
"They are useless, those in the international criminal [court]. They [Russia] withdrew. I might follow. Why? Only the small ones like us are battered," Duterte said.
Most African and European countries are still members of the tribunal founded in 1998.
