Therese Raphael, Columnist

Trying Putin For War Crimes Is No Liberal Fantasy

Building a legal case against Putin’s regime will determine what kind of world we live in after Ukraine’s war.

March 25, 2022 at 6:00 AM UTC

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering health care and British politics. Previously, she was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

When will justice be served?
Photographer: MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP

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If peace in Ukraine looks depressingly far away, accountability seems beyond another galaxy. What are the chances Vladimir Putin will appear in a courtroom to answer for the hell he’s unleashed in Ukraine? They seem vanishingly small.

And yet, national leaders, politicians, international organizations and an army of individuals are working to build the war crimes case against Putin and his regime. The International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice are all investigating crimes committed in Ukraine. Former U.K. prime ministers Gordon Brown and John Major have thrown their support behind an initiative to back a new tribunal.