Oleksandra Romantsova, the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, spoke to Kyiv Post about the creation of a special tribunal for Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine, the work of the “Tribunal for Putin” initiative, the difficult balance between human rights and national security during the war, and the transformation of Ukrainian civil society. Oleksandra Romantsova in the Kyiv Post newsroom. (Photo by Petro Zhyzhyian / Kyiv Post) JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Special Tribunal for Russia and the Council of Europe: Why This Platform in Particular Kyiv Post: Ms. Romantsova, recently the European Union co-founded a special tribunal for Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Why was the Council of Europe chosen as the base platform for this process? Oleksandra Romantsova: Actually, Ukraine had been looking for ways to create a legitimate international institution whose decisions would be unconditionally recognized in international relations for a long time. That is why the Council of Europe is a good and professional choice for several reasons. Firstly, it has one of the oldest judicial formats – the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), created earlier than the International Criminal Court (ICC) or ad-hoc tribunals. This institution possesses vast experience in determining, for instance, the financial equivalent of human rights violations by a state. That is why the Register of Damage is currently located there.