JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s Smoking Guns: How to Prove the Putin Regime’s War Crimes in Ukraine” – Foreign Affairs/ Janine di Giovanni

File Photos of Law Books and Gavel, adapted from image at fjc.gov

“… [The] Ukraine … conflict has involved horrific atrocities, many … extensively recorded in real time …. [U]nlike in Syria and other recent wars, these crimes are being documented with the explicit aim of amassing evidence that can be used in courts. Since the war began, dozens of investigative journalists have been trained to become war crimes researchers, gathering images, […]

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“New book: SOVIET JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG – A New History of the International Military Tribunal // Pub. July 2020” – Sarah Payne, Oxford University Press

Nuremberg Trials Courtroom Scene, adapted from image at archives.gov

Subject: New book: SOVIET JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG – A New History of the International Military Tribunal // Pub. July 2020 Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2020 15:05:20 +0000 From: PAYNE, Sarah <Sarah.Payne@oup.com> Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ffJmId Standard Western accounts of The Nuremberg Trials fixate on key figures like Justice Robert H. Jackson, the U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge, as well as […]

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U.S. Senators To Try Again With Tougher Russia Sanctions Bill

American Flag and Partial View of U.S. Capitol Dome, adapted from image at aoc.gov

(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – February 14, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/us-senators-press-new-tough-russia-sanctions-bill/29769099.html) A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill that would impose drastic new sanctions on Russia over its meddling in U.S. elections and aggression against Ukraine. The bill, the latest congressional effort to push President Donald Trump […]

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RM Picks: What to Read on the Kerch Strait Crisis

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – RM Staff – November 30, 2018) [Article also appeared, with different images, at russiamatters.org/blog/rm-picks-what-read-kerch-strait-crisis] Looking to make sense of the events between Russia and Ukraine in the Sea of Azov and their implications? RM recommends the following articles: “Why Putin Is Pressuring Ukraine. The United States needs to decide how much of a threat Moscow’s […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “A Dissident Wins a Bittersweet Victory Over Putin; Europe’s rights court condemned the Kremlin’s persecution of Alexei Navalny, but the ruling could push Russia further away from the West.” – Bloomberg/Leonid Bershidsky

European Court of Human Rights Building file photo

“… Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has long had a catch-and-release relationship with … Putin and his regime. … [T]he European Court for Human Rights ruled that arrests in 2012 and 2014 violated Navalny’s rights. … likely to bring Russia a step closer to breaking off its remaining ties with European institutions.  The Putin regime has been playing an unpredictable game […]

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A Landmark Caspian Agreement — And What It Resolves

(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – – Bruce Pannier – August 9, 2018- also appeared at rferl.org/a/qishloq-ovozi-landmark-caspian-agreement–and-what-it-resolves/29424824.html) It has taken more than 20 years. But on August 12, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran,  Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan will meet in the Kazakh port city of Aqtau, reportedly to sign a new convention on the legal status […]

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NEWSLINK: “How the GRU spy agency targets the west, from cyberspace to Salisbury” – The Guardian (UK)/Andrew Roth

Stylized Artist's Depiction of Shadowy Figures in Dark Coats and Dark Hats, One Carrying a Briefcase

“… A British security source … [said] the nerve agent attack on the former double agent Sergei Skripal was also ordered by the [GRU] intelligence agency. The British government is poised to submit an extradition request to Moscow for two Russians suspected of carrying out the Salisbury attack that left one person dead and three injured, including Skripal and his […]

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Crimea should hold new referendum – Sobchak

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

YEKATERINBURG. Oct 28 (Interfax) – The Russian television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, who has decided to run for presidency in 2018, says that Crimea must hold a new independent referendum. “Russia violated its international obligations, that’s the main starting point. There are Russian people living in Crimea, many of them. (…) We cannot treat them as subjects of geopolitics. That policy […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Obama Signs Law That Could Reopen Cultural Exchange with #Russia; Russia’s major museums have not lent artworks to the US since 2011.” – Artnet News/Alyssa Buffenstein

Hermitage Museum

A new law signed … grants foreign states immunity from US jurisdiction in cases related to the temporary exhibition of loaned artworks …. Despite current tensions between Obama and … Putin – and opposition to the bill from groups like the Holocaust Art Restitution Project – the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act could mean the renewing of cultural […]

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NEWSLINK Russian and Eurasian Politics/Gordon Hahn: “Russia, America, and Interference in Domestic Politics: Comparative Context”

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

“It is important to note that any interference by either side is a violation of the Helsinki Final Act, which forbids signatory-states from interfering in the domestic politics of other signatory-states. Both Russia and the U.S. are signatory-states. This article needs further elaboration to define what constitutes ‘interference in domestic politics’ and to determine remedies and punishments for such interference. […]

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TRANSCRIPT: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin interviewed by the German ARD TV channel

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

(Government.ru – August 29, 2008) “We are not going to play by some special rules of our own. We want everyone to follow the same rules that are also referred to as international law.” Thomas Roth: Mr Prime Minister, After the escalation of tensions in Georgia, the Western public and politicians, as well as the press and other people, believe […]

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NEWSWATCH Reuters: “Russia Grants Ukraine’s Request to Delay Eurobond Case Defense”

International Monetary Fund Logo Over Ukraine Flag

Russia has agreed to allow Ukraine extra time to file its defence with a British court … Russia filed a lawsuit … demanding repayment of the $3 billion Eurobond …. Ukraine insists Russia must accept restructuring terms agreed with other foreign creditors. … Ukraine had until March 19 to file its defence although it was granted an extension until April […]

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Kyiv sees Savchenko’s conviction as Moscow’s failure to comply with Minsk Agreements – Foreign Ministry statement

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

KYIV. March 22 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has demanded that Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko’s conviction be reversed and she be freed. “We view this judicial farce as yet another undeniable evidence of the Russian Federation’s failure to comply with the Minsk Agreements,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Kyiv on Tuesday. “The Ukrainian Foreign […]

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NEWSWATCH: Washington Post editorial: “Russia’s latest show trial”

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

The Obama administration keeps betting that Vladi­mir Putin is genuinely interested in a diplomatic settlement in Ukraine. The case of Nadiya Savchenko offers powerful evidence to the contrary. … Savchenko, 34, is a Ukrainian army officer who served with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and later volunteered for a battalion that fought Russia’s invasion of her country’s eastern provinces in […]

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Russian Investigative Committee gives ICC data on S. Ossetia conflict crimes

Georgia Map

(Interfax – January 28, 2016) The Russian Investigative Committee has provided the International Criminal Court (ICC) with the files of a criminal case opened into the crimes committed during the 2008 armed conflict in South Ossetia, Investigative Committee director Alexander Bastrykin has said. “The Investigative Committee of Russia conducted a thorough investigation into the crimes committed by the Georgian military,” […]

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[NATO Expansion and International Law] Re: 2016-#7-Johnson’s Russia List/Mercouris re NATO

NATO Meeting file photo

Subject: Re: 2016-#7-Johnson’s Russia List/Mercouris re NATO Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2016 From: Timothy Stubbs <timothy.stubbs@dentons.com> As regards Mr. Mercouris’s article of today: In any legal system, agreements intended to be treated as binding and enforceable must meet certain customary formal and substantive requirements for the parties thereto to have a reasonable expectation that such agreements will be treated as […]

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Interfax: Russia to defend its interests in non-confrontational manner, based on intl law – Putin

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax) – Russia is ready to defend its interests in a non-confrontational manner, based on international law, which must be understood uniformly by all, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. “You asked me if I was a friend or not. The relations between states are a little different from those between individuals. I am no friend, bride […]

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[International Law and Crimea Annexation] Re: 2015-#72-Johnson’s Russia List/#45. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Senior Russian judge claims legal justification for Crimea annexation.

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

[DJ: This individual is active in business in Kyiv and Moscow and requests anonymity] Subject: Re: 2015-#72-Johnson’s Russia List/#45. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Senior Russian judge claims legal justification for Crimea annexation. (Valeriy Zorkin) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 From: Anonymous 1. I am a putinista, albeit not a passionate/blind one. 2. I am a doctor and a professor of international law. […]

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German doctors confirm that Savchenko is fine – Russian Federal Penitentiary Service

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

(Interfax – February 16, 2015) The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has assisted German doctors with an objective medical evaluation of Ukrainian servicewoman Nadezhda Savchenko, which has confirmed that her health condition is fine. “Assistance was provided yesterday with an approved medical evaluation of accused Nadezhda Savchenko by doctors from Germany,” the FSIN press service said in a report obtained […]

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Russia Would See U.S. Moves to Arm Ukraine as Declaration of War

Maidan Square file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – February 10, 2015) U.S. provision of military aid to Ukraine would be seen by Moscow as a declaration of war and spark a global escalation of Ukraine’s separatist conflict, Russian defense analysts said. With Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine seizing new territory from the Ukrainian army, voices in Washington are demanding that […]

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Russia Sanctions Update series

Truck at Russian Border Crossing

Paul Backer, an American attorney based in Moscow, recently has offered the following original contributions to the JRL on the subject of sanctions and the response by business and legal counsel. Backer, pbacker@skalalaw.com, is with Skalaw Law, online at skalalaw.com. Part I: Russia sanctions: implementing client sanctions policies – Sept. 26, 2014 Part II: Russian companies’ failures to adopt effective sanctions policies […]

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Russia sanctions, implementing client sanctions policies

Truck at Russian Border Crossing

Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 From: Paul Backer <contact@skalalaw.com> Subject: Russia sanctions, implementing client sanctions policies Part 1. Russia sanctions, implementing client sanctions policies. Skala Law client update. Sanctions’ impact will worsen through 2015. Failing to understand sanctions’ purpose and enforcement materially and avoidably damages listed and unlisted entities. Lack of a sanctions policy renders entities noncompetitive in tenders and […]

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Interfax: Moscow stays committed to INF Treaty despite new security threats – Russian Defense Ministry

File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

(Interfax – August 14, 2014) Russia remains committed to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), although the situation has changed significantly in the world since this document was signed, and almost 30 countries hold such weapons today, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has said. “One cannot fail to admit that the military and political situation in Europe and […]

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Interfax: Pushkov not ruling out Russia’s pull-out from INF treaty

Alexei Pushkov file photo

MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) – The head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, has not ruled out the possibility that Russia could withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. “Russia is not planning a series of denunciations of international agreements but it could exit those which no longer meet its national interests, those such as the […]

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Moscow Times: Experts I.D. Russian Missile That U.S. Claims Breached Treaty

Iskander Tactical Nuclear Weapon with Mobile Launcher File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – July 31, 2014) Russian analysts have tentatively identified the mysterious missile at the center of Washington’s recent claims that Moscow had violated a perestroika-era arms treaty, but have noted that the missile in question had never been used to target Ukraine. The Likely Culprit The deployment of Russia’s state-of-the-art R-500, a powerful […]

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Crimea Proving to Be a War Fought With International Law

Russian Naval Vessel in Ukrainian Port

(Moscow Times – cc – Ingrid Burke – April 7, 2014) International law is the weapon of choice in the Crimea conflict, with adversaries using sections of the United Nations Charter like artillery to bolster their own defenses and target their opponents’ weaknesses. But who will end up on the right side of history? The fact that the international community has […]

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The Hague Declaration

File Photo of G7 Leaders and other Officials Around Round Table at the Hague, with Flags

(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 24, 2014) 1. We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission met in The Hague to reaffirm our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and […]

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Statement of G-7 Leaders on Ukraine

File Photo of G8 Heads of State Outdoors in 2013

(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 12, 2014) We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission, call on the Russian Federation to cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea […]

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RIA Novosti: Last Imprisoned Greenpeace Activist Granted Bail in Russia

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) ­ The last of the Greenpeace activists arrested in Russia over a September protest at an Arctic oil rig was granted bail Thursday by a St. Petersburg court. The court set bail for Colin Russell from Australia at 2 million rubles ($60,000), the same condition set for the other 29 crew members, who were all […]

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Interfax: Greenpeace has noble goals but wrong methods – Putin

File Photo of Polar Bear on Ice and Snow with Water Nearby

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The actions of the Greenpeace environmentalists who tried to climb an oil platform in the Arctic posed a threat to the lives of the people who are working there, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “When they climb the platform and create an emergency situation, there could be not just one mistake of an operator but […]

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RIA Novosti: Detained Greenpeace Activists Deserve Clemency – Putin

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) ­ The Greenpeace activists detained in Russia over a protest at an Arctic oil rig should be granted clemency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday as 10 of them were released and many others granted bail. When asked to comment on their case at a meeting with Russian writers, publishers, critics and booksellers, Putin said […]

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Putin Adviser Sees Political Will to End Greenpeace Dispute

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – November 19, 2013) Russia is showing “political will” to end a two-month-long dispute over the prosecution of Greenpeace activists after they began to be set free on bail, President Vladimir Putin’s human rights adviser said. “It’s a good sign,” Mikhail Fedotov said in a phone interview today from Moscow. “I hope the same […]

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Interfax: Russia did not violate intl law by banning homosexuality propaganda among minors – children’s ombudsman

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Russia did not violate international law by imposing a ban on propaganda of homosexual relations among minors, Russian presidential children’s rights envoy Pavel Astakhov says. “Propaganda of homosexuality among children violates commonly accepted principles and norms of international law,” the envoy’s press service quoted him as saying at the international parliamentary forum on ‘Constitution. Democracy. […]

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Interfax: Kremlin rights council asks Investigative Committee head to change pre-trial restrictions of Greenpeace activists

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – The Russian president’s Human Rights Council has asked Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin to consider the possible release of the Arctic Sunrise crewmembers who were detained for staging a protest off Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea from custody. “The Russian president’s Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights is […]

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Moscow Times: Russians See Greenpeace Protest as a Foreign Plot

Polar Map of Major Rail Lines in Russia, Canada and United States, With Hypothetical Additional Route Drawn In Connecting Them Across Bering Strait

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 29, 2013) State pollster VTsIOM released survey results Monday regarding last month’s Greenpeace protest in the Arctic that indicate more than a third of Russians believe the protest was a foreign plot and more than two-thirds disagree with the group’s message of needing to protect the environment from oil drilling. Armed […]

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Pressure Growing on Putin to Free Greenpeace Activists

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 18, 2013) International pressure on Russia over the arrest of Greenpeace activists mounted Thursday as 11 Nobel Peace Prize winners urged President Vladimir Putin to drop the piracy charges against them. The 11 laureates made such an appeal in a letter sent to the Russian president, Greenpeace said. The letter, which […]

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Kremlin Adviser Likens Greenpeace Piracy Charge to Gang Rape

Polar Map of Major Rail Lines in Russia, Canada and United States, With Hypothetical Additional Route Drawn In Connecting Them Across Bering Strait

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – October 11, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s human rights adviser urged prosecutors to drop piracy charges against Greenpeace activists for an Arctic protest, saying it’s as stupid as accusing them of raping the oil platform they scaled. “These charges are laughable because there isn’t the slightest justification for accusing the crew […]

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Human rights council will ask prosecutor general to drop piracy charge against Arctic Sunrise crew – Fedotov

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 10, 2013) The piracy charges, based on which the crew of the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise was arrested, are ungrounded and should be reconsidered, Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential human rights council, said. “I hope this decision will be reconsidered. In any case, we will turn to the prosecutor general. He has potential for […]

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Moscow Times: Majority of Russians Think Greenpeace Arrests Appropriate

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013) The majority of Russians approve of the piracy charges against 28 Greenpeace activists who were detained in late September after trying to climb an Gazprom-owned oil drilling rig in the Arctic to protest its environmental impact. A survey from state pollster VTsIOM published Wednesday showed that 60 percent of the respondents believe […]

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NEW BOOK: Strategic Cooperation: Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy

Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 Subject: New book: Strategic Cooperation:  Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy From: Michael Slobodchikoff <mslobodchikoff@troy.edu> Michael O. Slobodchikoff Lecturer of Political Science Troy University Troy, AL TITLE: Strategic Cooperation:  Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy AUTHOR: Michael O. Slobodchikoff PUBLISHER: Lexington Books (2013) ABSTRACT: Power inequalities and mistrust have characterized many interstate relationships. Yet most […]

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Moscow Security Conference Declares Death of CFE Treaty

File Photo of Russian Tanks in Military Parade

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 105 – Roger McDermott – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – June 4, 2013) The Moscow European Security Conference on May 23­-24 offered an opportunity for a wide range of defense officials and experts from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to exchange views on the future of Euro-Atlantic security with their Russian […]

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Libya catastrophe sets precedent for new type of intervention by force – Russian Constitutional Court Head

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, May 17, 2013) The state catastrophe in Libya shows that lawful methods of resolving the issue have been substituted for use of force and this creates chaos in most parts of Africa, Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin said. “Researchers and experts acknowledge a very dangerous destruction of the international legal system, more and more frequent […]

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Russian PM against revising international laws; praises European integration

Dmitry Medvedev file photo

(Interfax – May 15, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev believes that the basic principles of international law must not be revised even in the face of global crises, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 15 May. Speaking at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg on the same day, Medvedev admitted that “many things that seem unshakable to us […]

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Russia Hopes for International Arms Trade Treaty Revision

Russian Helicopter file photo

MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) – Moscow hopes for the revision of the international arms trade treaty approved at last year’s conference in New York. “Hopefully, correct conclusions will be drawn from the negative experience of the July conference and the opinions of all participants in the process will be taken into consideration. We also think that the draft used as […]

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