Russian people must bring dictator Putin to justice

Sir, – Vladimir Putin is clearly a war criminal so must be tried for war crimes after his invasion of Ukraine, which is a clear contravention of rules including the Geneva Convention, which governs the conduct of war.

This seems to be unarguable given pictures from Mariupol, Bucha and other Ukrainian towns, the atrocities against civilians and deliberate targeting of the civil infrastructure.

However, who would try him and on whose authority – an International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague? Sadly, the ICC cannot claim jurisdiction over Russia and, for that matter, Ukraine for this current war.

Some 123 countries signed the Rome statute upon which the ICC was founded.

However, neither the USA, Israel, China, Iraq, Libya, Qatar and Yemen have signed up – including the aforementioned two.

Putin must be tried somehow for his crimes otherwise the concept of international law is rendered all but useless.

A UN-administered tribunal like the one which tried the former president of Serbia Slobodon Milosevic?

The UN is dominated by the five victors from the Second World War – US, Russia, China, UK and France – each of whom has a veto on the security council. As such, hell will freeze over before Putin is charged with any war crimes by the UN, which one can see is a toothless tiger and, boy, does Putin know that.

The only hope is that the Russian people themselves bring swift justice towards this corrupt and murderous leader, or he dies soon. Ukraine has so far identified 10,000 war crimes against him.

World leaders now need to step up to the plate and set up a one-off tribunal to prosecute Putin and co, according to prominent barrister Professor Phillipe Sands QC, an expert in international law.

Some Tories and many others are quite concerned over Boris Johnson’s links to Russian oligarchs. So Boris, prove them all wrong.

Ian Wallace. Chapman Drive, Carnoustie.