Moscow (CNN)A forum representing Russian military veterans took an unusual step Sunday by voting to ask the International Criminal Court to probe the Russian government’s use of private military contractors in deployments abroad.
The veterans agreed to submit an appeal to Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor at The Hague-based court, over Russian civilians being used as private military contractors in hotspots around the globe. The conflict zones include Syria, Libya, sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Ukraine.
The Russian government officially does not acknowledge using private military contractors to advance foreign-policy, and mercenary activity is prohibited by law. But earlier this year, after US airstrikes killed and injured dozens of Russian military contractors in Syria, the families of some of the dead began to come forward, creating a public-relations conundrum for the Kremlin.
