RUSSIA

MATTHEW EHRET—In hindsight, we can observe the growth of the media empire under the control of Plahotniuc and the vast investments into “democracy building” by the National Endowment of Democracy to get a sense of the causal hand behind these events, though at the time the culprits never came to light. One thing is clear: The American State Department’s hand pervaded this story as Ambassador Chaudhry (connected closely to Victoria Nuland according to Wikileaks emails), was a major power broker and brags that his work in carrying out Moldovan democracy reforms during this time was the most rewarding experience of his career. In the wake of this attempted coup, three pro-western opposition parties created the Alliance for European Integration winning 53 seats and pushing out the Communist Party from power.

DANIEL LAZARE—Finally, they threw in the towel, surprising everybody except the few who saw it coming all along. “In light of the defendant’s conduct,” the prosecution announced, “…its ephemeral presence and immunity to just punishment, the risk of exposure of law enforcement’s tools and techniques, and the post-indictment change in the proof available at trial, the balance of equities has shifted. It is no longer in the best interests of justice or the country’s national security to continue this prosecution.”

What the impeachment hearings are concealing is an effort — by the military, the “intelligence community” and the imperialist ruling class they serve — to push for an even more aggressive foreign policy — with or without Trump.

Journalists, including those from other countries, were shown the new Russian military base in the Arctic for the first time. “Northern Clover” on Kotelny Island, it’s 300 miles from here to the mainland. One can get there only with a helicopter. There’s no internet or cell network there. Only polar bears and eternal frost around. It’s comfortable to serve there, though – a modern military base has been built for servicemen.While the above is a straightforward, and non-hostile reporting on the base, observe how the situation changes immediately when the same story is “reported” by a notorious disinformation outfit from the West, the American network CNN.

The 1993 constitution guarantees the presumption of innocence for criminal defendants as well as the right to counsel (Henderson 2011). During Putin’s first two terms as president, he introduced or oversaw the implementation of the rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and increased rights to exculpatory evidence (Petro 2018). After certain reforms made by Putin to the criminal code, acquittal rates in bench trials (only heard by a judge) doubled and acquittal rates in jury trials tripled, contributing to a 40 percent drop in the overall incarceration rate and a 95 percent drop in the juvenile incarceration rate since 2001 (Petro 2018).