Oksana Bidnenko is a staff correspondent for JURIST. She is a Ukrainian law student at the Riga Graduate School of Law in Riga, Latvia, and is currently an exchange student at the University of Oslo, Norway. On March 14, the Lithuanian Parliament unanimously voted in favor of designating the Russian private military company (PMC) “Wagner” [...]
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The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) Monday confirmed to the AP that high ranking Russian paramilitary commander Andrey Medvedev defected to Norway and applied for asylum. This marks one of the first instances of Russian paramilitary personnel defecting to the west since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a video recorded Monday, Medvedev [...]
What 20 Years of Putin’s Own Words Tell Us About Russia’s Subversion of International Law
Seven months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, amid mounting evidence of Russian battlefield losses, Putin announced his country’s latest annexation of four territories. In a rambling speech that alternately sought legitimacy for the annexations in the UN Charter and railed against Western colonialism and transgender rights, the enigmatic Russian leader revealed a great deal about [...]
Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine vote 'overwhelmingly' in favor of joining Russia
RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, Wednesday reported that leaders from the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republics (LPR) were traveling to Moscow to complete the procedure of joining Russia. The results of the referenda for the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia were: Donetsk – 99.23% voted in favor of joining [...]
The Russian Federation Thursday announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe (“the Council”). The country claimed that EU and NATO countries are using their absolute majority to continue to destroy the Council, of which Russia will no longer will be a part. Russia joined the Council of Europe, a leading human rights organization of [...]
Putin's Invasion of Ukraine: A Desperate Gamble to Reverse a String of Failures
In the days that have passed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many have questioned the implications of this unchecked aggression against a sovereign nation for the post-war international order. Fears have proliferated that international justice is dead, that autocracy has won. But a closer look reveals that this invasion is the product of weakness, not [...]
After the American Election: Overcoming Plague, Chaos and "Mass"
“The mass-man has no attention to spare for reasoning; he learns only in his own flesh.” – Jose Ortega y’Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses (1930) In the United States, prima facie, presidential elections represent a core fixture of democracy. Nonetheless, though necessary – and never more so than in the just-completed defeat of Donald [...]
From the beginnings of his crudely acrimonious presidency, Donald Trump has actively undermined US foreign policy relationships. On urgently key matters of world politics and international law, Mr. Trump’s typically invalid conclusions have generally been drawn from narrowly belligerent premises. Truly, the main problem with such faulty presidential arguments, however, has not been Trump’s gratuitously [...]
Russia parliament approves constitutional change allowing Putin to run for president again
Both houses of the Russia Parliament on Wednesday approved a constitutional change that would allow President Vladimir Putin to run for reelection again. The current Russian constitution requires the president to step down after serving two consecutive terms. Putin is currently serving his second consecutive term and would have to leave office when his term [...]
Russia government resigns following announcement of reforms to weaken Putin's successor
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Federal Assembly on Wednesday and proposed constitutional reforms that would weaken the next President of Russia, causing the entire Russian government to resign. Putin also addressed the country’s changing demographics and social issues such as supporting working families. It is speculated that the changes are being made to prepare [...]