scholarly journals The Yukos Arbitration Saga and Russia’s Constitutional Amendments

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
Maren Krimmer
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Russian Company ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Arbitral Award ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Energy Charter Treaty ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Appeals Court ◽  
Domestic Law

In February 2020, a Dutch appeals court ruled that the Russian state owed shareholders in the now-defunct Russian company Yukos 50 billion US dollars, one of the largest sums ever awarded. However, no country has yet been able to enforce the Yukos arbitral award issued in 2014 against Russia: while the arbitration tribunal in the Yukos investment case ruled in favour of the company, affirming that provisional application of the Energy Charter Treaty was compatible with Russian domestic law, Russia regards the matter as one of sovereignty and sees its power as being threatened. The article discusses whether non-enforcement of the award on the Russian government’s part would be justified by Article 15 (1) of the Russian Constitution and what impact the currently planned amendments to that foundational law might have with regard to international treaties and decisions of international bodies. The article concludes that the political and theory-oriented debate regarding Yukos will continue and that it will remain hard for the former Yukos shareholders to collect their money under the PCA’s arbitral award.

RUSSIA'S 2020 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
William PARTLETT
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
The People ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Russian Constitution

Abstract This article will place the 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution in comparative perspective. Although these amendments were officially justified as strengthening the Russian state in order to tackle emerging new problems, they constitutionalise already-existing legislative trends from the last twenty years. They therefore do little to overcome existing problems of Russian state building. What was the reform process about then? It was intended to project the image of reform by involving the people in a staged process of constitutional change while further entrenching the power of the current political elite. The constitutional reforms therefore demonstrate the symbolic role that constitutional law can play in seeking to ensure the survival of mature or later-stage forms of authoritarian populism. This kind of ‘theatrical constitution-making’ is a broader reminder of how the expressive aspects of constitutional change can be (ab)used by established authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals 2020 Constitutional Reform and Center-Region Relations in Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Kudryashova ◽  
Rustam Mirzaev
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Center Region ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Regional Leaders ◽  
Consultative Body ◽  
Upper Chamber

This article examines 2020 constitutional reform in Russia. The amendments recently were approved on July, 1st by nation-vide vote. The purpose of the article is to analyze center-region trends in Russia and how they are reflected in the proposed constitutional amendments. The prospective changes in regional representation in the federal decision-making process shall also be discussed. The article shows how chaotic decentralization during the 90-s was replaced by a trend of centralization. The 2020 constitutional reform reflects a further strengthening of this centralization trend. The problems faced by the Russian regions are left unresolved. It is becoming an overcentralized country. The amended Russian Constitution envisages a reformed role for the Russian State Council. It is supposed to be defined in the Constitution as a consultative body by the President and is expected to be formed of regional leaders. At the same time, the Federal Council of the Federal Assembly (the upper chamber of the Russian parliament), which represents the different constituencies, is also set to be reformed. However, after the reform some of its powers shall be restricted. The changes to regional representation in the federal decision-making process has a controversial and inconsistent character and inevitably supports the general trend towards centralization.

“Ukrainian question” in the memoirs of the officials of the Ukrainian State of Hetman P. Skoropadskyi

2018 ◽  
pp. 173-189
Author(s):  
Elena Borisenok
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Future

The article focuses on the analysis of the memoirs of the political and military officials that served Hetman P. Skoropadskyi. Their positions toward “Ukrainian question”, Hetman regime, views on the future of the Russian state etc. are studied.

scholarly journals The All-Buryat Congress for the Spiritual Rebirth and Consolidation of the Nation: Siberian politics in the final year of the USSR

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
Melissa Chakars
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
General Goals

This article examines the All-Buryat Congress for the Spiritual Rebirth and Consolidation of the Nation that was held in the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1991. The congress met to discuss the future of the Buryats, a Mongolian people who live in southeastern Siberia, and to decide on what actions should be taken for the revival, development, and maintenance of their culture. Widespread elections were carried out in the Buryat lands in advance of the congress and voters selected 592 delegates. Delegates also came from other parts of the Soviet Union, as well as from Mongolia and China. Government administrators, Communist Party officials, members of new political parties like the Buryat-Mongolian People’s Party, and non-affiliated individuals shared their ideas and political agendas. Although the congress came to some agreement on the general goals of promoting Buryat traditions, language, religions, and culture, there were disagreements about several of the political and territorial questions. For example, although some delegates hoped for the creation of a larger Buryat territory that would encompass all of Siberia’s Buryats within a future Russian state, others disagreed revealing the tension between the desire to promote ethnic identity and the practical need to consider economic and political issues.

Indian and Russian Tolstoy: one among strangers and a stranger among one’s

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
Svetlana M. Klimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Lev Tolstoy ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Church ◽  
Peculiar Phenomenon

The article examines the phenomenon of the late Lev Tolstoy in the context of his religious position. The author analyzes the reactions to his teaching in Russian state and official Orthodox circles, on the one hand, and Indian thought, on the other. Two sociocultural images of L.N. Tolstoy: us and them that arose in the context of understanding the position of the Russian Church and the authorities and Indian public and religious figures (including Mahatma Gandhi, who was under his influence). A peculiar phenomenon of intellectually usL.N. Tolstoy among culturally them (Indian) correspondents and intellectually them Tolstoy among culturally us (representatives of the official government and the Church of Russia) transpires. The originality of this situation is that these im­ages of Lev Tolstoy arise practically at the same period. The author compares these images, based on the method of defamiliarisation (V. Shklovsky), which allows to visually demonstrate the religious component of Tolstoy’s criticism of the political sphere of life and, at the same time, to understand the psychological reasons for its rejection in Russian official circles. With the methodological help of defamiliarisation the author tries to show that the opinion of Tolstoy (as the writer) becomes at the same time the voice of conscience for many of his con­temporaries. The method of defamiliarisation allowed the author to show how Leo Tolstoy’s inner law of nonviolence influenced the concept of non­violent resistance in the teachings of Gandhi.

Modern problems of the activities of public authorities in the light of their legiti-macy

2021 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Аvdeev
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Modern System ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Existing Structure

The article examines the constitutional foundations of the legitimacy of public authorities, concludes that their activities correspond to the political interests of Russian citizens. The problem of the legitimacy of the activities of public authorities in the Russian Federation and the process of their legitimation, after the constitutional amendments, acquired particular relevance. Participation in the management of state affairs is determined by the peculiarities of the modern system of organization of power, as well as the ability of citizens to influence the functioning of the activities of its bodies, which makes it possible to determine the degree of legitimacy of public administration. The author, analyzing the existing structure of public authorities through the prism of the legitimacy of their activities, identifies some problems of an organizational nature and suggests ways of solving them in this regard.

scholarly journals RUSSIAN ETATISM AND RUSSIAN PATERNALISM IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS OF RUSSIA ON THE EVE OF PETER THE GREAT’S REFORMATION

2021 ◽  
pp. 152-157
Author(s):  
N. A. Omelchenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodoxy ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
Russian Politics ◽  
Time Of Troubles ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Institutional Foundations

The article сonsiders ideological, political and cultural prerequisites of the Peter the Great state reforms that, according to the author, were formed long before the Peter`s Reformation, and had a significant impact on the course and model of the “regular” (military- police) state created by Peter the First. Among the main prerequisites are the etatization (nationalization) of society and the associated paternalistic nature of state relations, which formed the traditional foundations of national statehood and strengthened in the 17th century in the context of Russia’s withdrawal from the Turmoil and the restoration of the national statehood destroyed in the time of troubles. The paper investigates the reasons for the formation of these features of the development of national statehood, the main of which the author proposes to search in the civilizational and geopolitical features of the formation and evolution of the Russian state, the weakness of the institutional foundations of Russian politics, stylistic peculiarities of Russian Orthodoxy and a number of other factors.

scholarly journals The first letter of A. E. Krymsky to Professor A. N. Veselovsky from Beirut (1897)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Valeyev ◽  
◽  
R. Valeyeva ◽  
O. Vasilyuk ◽  
D. Khayrutdinov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article publishes the first letter of A. Y. Krymsky from Beirut, the period of his academic trip to Professor A. N. Veselovsky of Moscow University and the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. The published letter greatly expand our understanding of the period of A. Y. Krymsky's stay in Lebanon from October 1896 to May 1898. These personal autographs of A. Y. Krymsky are valuable material for his extensive epistolary heritage and original assessments of the political, social and cultural situation in Beirut at the end of the 19th century. This is the first ever publication of letter written by A. Y. Krymsky to A. N. Veselovsky in January of 1897, from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.

What Changes for the Constitutional Court with the New Russian Constitution?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Ivan S. Grigoriev
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Locus Standi ◽  
The Status ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
International Obligations

Abstract Of the 206 amendments introduced to the Russian constitution and adopted on July 1, 2020, 24 deal directly with the Constitutional Court, its organization, functioning, and the role it plays in the political system. Compared to many other, these are also rather precise and detailed, ranging from the number of judges on the bench, their nomination and dismissal, to the Court’s inner procedures, new locus standi limitations, and the primacy of the Constitution over Russia’s international obligations. Most changes only reproduce amendments brought to the secondary legislation over the last twenty years, and are therefore meant to preserve the status quo rather than change anything significantly. At the same time, a number of amendments aim at politicizing and instrumentalizing the Court for the president’s benefit, marking a significant departure from the previous institutional development.

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