Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, March 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
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Publish date: August 1, 2000
Written by: Jon Gauslaa
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The Russian legal system is on paper based on the rule of law. The appeal of the Prosecutor General against the acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin does, however, show that the Russian prosecuting authorities have huge problems with accepting this fact.
The opinion that the Prosecutor General in reality advocates in the appeal is that a Russian Court is not allowed to interpret the law independently, which only leaves it with one alternative: To enter upon the law interpretation of the prosecution. Thus, the appeal is nothing but a fierce attack of the independence of Russian Courts.
On earlier stages of the Nikitin case there was reason to believe that the major obstacle for a positive development of the Russian legal system was the lack of understanding for the rule of law within the FSB and lower levels of the prosecuting authorities.
Now the obstacle has been raised to the top of the prosecuting authorities. This is indeed an alarming development, which the Presidium of the Supreme Court is obliged to stop. The Presidium has no other lawful alternative. Besides, the development towards a Russian legal system based on the rule of law will face an almost unbridgeable obstacle if it does not. Then the prosecuting authorities will be able to continue to practice the kind of oppressive prosecutions that characterised the legal system of the Soviet Union.
However, both the City Courts and the Supreme Courts verdict, and also a number of other recent Russian Court decisions, show that there is an increasing level of independence and understanding for the basic principles of the rule of law among Russian judges. Hopefully the Presidium will fortify this tendency on August 2.
Nevertheless, the position of the Prosecutor General demonstrates that there still are many rivers to cross before Russia is a country that also in reality is based on the rule of law.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has told the United Nations atomic energy watchdog that Russia plans to restart Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, currently occupied by Russian troops and technicians, fueling worries about a serious nuclear accident on the front lines of a grinding military conflict.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Brussels, Belgium – Today, the European Parliament approved the newly revised Construction Products regulation (CPR)...