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).
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Did the US Steal Russia’s Hypersonic Weapons Secrets?
President Putin’s announcement in March that Russia was in possession of hypersonic weaponry was heralded as a strategic game-changer of the highest order because of the implication that the US’ decades-long “missile defense” investments were now suddenly rendered null and void, thereby restoring the nuclear balance that had been at risk of disruption by America’s moves to safeguard itself from a speculative nuclear second strike and theoretically one day give itself the prerogative to carry out a first one with impunity. Russia and the rest of the world were on track to become the victims of nuclear blackmail had this trend been allowed to continue uninterrupted, which is why Moscow’s development of hypersonic weapons technology was such a big deal.
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Decoding the hypersonic Putin on a day of remembrance
PEPE ESCOBAR—In the near future, the Avangard may be launched by the formidable Sarmat RS-28 intercontinental ballistic missile and reach Washington in a mere 15 minutes, flying in a cloud of plasma “like a meteorite” – even if the launch is from Russian territory. Serial production of Sarmat ICBMs starts in 2021. The Avangard simply cannot be intercepted by any existing system on the planet – and the US knows it. Here is General John Hyten, head of US Strategic Command: “We don’t have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us.”
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Luciana Bohne discusses Washington’s efforts to subjugate Russia
The US and its accomplices, especially Britain, spent most of the 20th and much of the 21st centuries trying to smother Soviet communism, and now Russia’s reemergence as an independent power. Churchill, an abject and unapologetic colonialist and imperialist strongly advised “the West” to strangle the “Bolshevik baby” in its cradle. The next decades saw cold and hot wars—including the Western-tolerated buildup of a huge German fascist army with the express purpose of having such force defeat and smash the hated communists. Even before the Second World War was finished, he was advising, with plenty of American interest, the notion the USSR should be invaded and nuked. The Anglo-Americans knew all along that Russia would not abide by Washington’s hegemonic ambitions, or its savage capitalism forever mentality.
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