‘See You in The Hague!’: Lindsey Graham Defiant After Russia Issues Warrant for His Arrest

Sen. Lindsey Graham was defiant on Monday after Russia issued a warrant for his arrest for comments about the killing of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Summary

Sen. Lindsey Graham was defiant on Monday after Russia issued a warrant for his arrest for comments about the killing of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, saying he would wear the arrest warrant as a “Badge of Honor.”

• Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina and a foreign policy hawk, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday. Zelensky posted a video of Graham saying “Russians are dying” and appears to follow up by adding “it’s the best money we ever spent.”
• A spokesperson for Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Sunday “it’s hard to imagine a greater shame for the country than having such senators.” The Russian interior ministry followed up by issuing an arrest warrant for Graham without specifying the charge.
• Sen. Graham, a Republican, was banned from entering Russia last year along with 200 additional members of Congress. Graham made no apologies, tweeting, “to know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin’s regime brings me immense joy.”
• “Finally, here’s an offer to my Russian ‘friends’ who want to arrest and try me for calling out the Putin regime as being war criminals: I will submit to jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court if you do,” Graham added. “Come and make your best case. See you in The Hague!”

• Politico contextualized Graham’s reference to The Hague, “a city in The Netherlands where the International Criminal Court holds its trials. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March pertaining to the forced transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.”
• Axios noted Graham has been added to a “list of wanted criminal suspects” kept by Russia’s Interior Ministry. Graham’s comments appeared to have been edited, and the Ukrainian government later released a longer video showing his two comments weren’t related.
• The Daily Beast reported “Among those enraged was Margarita Simonyan, the editor of the Russian propaganda website Russia Today. The Russian journalist didn’t just call for Graham’s arrest, but insinuated she hopes an assassination plot is in the works.” Simonyan said, “It’s not even hard. We have his address.”

• Fox News observed the news of Graham’s arrest warrant comes as “Russia launched 54 Iranian-made drones at Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine, but air defenses shot down 52 of the drones, according to Ukrainian officials. Two people were killed during Saturday night’s attack, with falling debris landing on one 41-year-old man and another person dying of unspecified causes.”
• Graham said he continues to support Ukrainians as they defend against Russian aggression and has mentioned “that Ukraine has adopted the American mantra, ‘Live Free or Die,’” according to the New York Post. Graham added, “It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals.”
• The Daily Mail reported ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev did not respond kindly to Graham’s comments. Medvedev, now the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council called the South Carolina senator “an old fool.” ‘The old fool Senator Lindsey Graham said that the United States has never spent money so successfully as on the murder of Russians,’ said Medvedev. ‘He shouldn’t have done that.

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© Dominic Moore, 2023