Some Gems from "Russia Today"

Hey Guys,

Sorry it's taken me so long to start posting here, I've got a collection of articles you can feel free to mull over from the site Russia Today. While it often brings many unheard viewpoints in the West to prominence, it's important to recognize that (as you'll probably be able to recognize), there is a very pro-Kremlin tendency in its reporting.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/36393

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/36268

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/35988

and finally
http://www.russiatoday.com/features/news/36544 - a link on this page contains the full length of Putin's speech at the World Economic Forum, in which he said some things that at least I personally wasn't expecting.

Interesting Research Paper

Here's something to get the ball rolling, a 50-page document sponsored by NATO that delves into how Russia interacts with international law. I haven't read it yet, but if anyone is feeling proactive, it's a place to start! Snipits:

The Soviet legal system was protected from any direct penetration of international law byits conception of international law and municipal law as two completely separate legal systems. As a result of this dualist approach, the international obligations of the Soviet state would be applicable internally only if there were transformed by the legislature into a separate statute or administrative regulation. By relying on the doctrine of transformation, the Soviet Union was able to sign numerous international treaties, including treaties on human rights, and still avoid implementing some or all of their provisions in the domestic legal order.

... snip ...

The movement toward reform of the"closed" legal system began only with the advent of perestroika. The leaders of the Soviet Union realized that the country would have no prospects for further economic and social development unless a modern society based on the idea of the rule of law were build in the USSR. An important element of the overall political and legal reform was the recognition that the country would never be fully integrated into the World community if it did not ensure the observance of the internationally accepted norms, in particular norms concerning human rights.

The Beginning

Hey guys, so here's the blog! Email me and get yourselves some username.  Let's use this over the break to share our ideas about how we where we want to go from here, summarize and share relevant articles, etc...  Maybe in the future we could publisize the blog and make it more official.  The possibilities are endless...