The State of Affairs in Russia

[Syt]

International courts matter little to Russia.

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-constitutional-court-verdicts/27428191.html

Russian Law Allows High Court To Reject International Court Verdicts

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow the country's Constitutional Court to decide whether to enforce verdicts against Moscow that are made by interstate courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights.

Putin signed the law -- which was recently passed by the State Duma and the Federation Council -- on December 15.

The law states that Russia's Constitutional Court should be guided by the principle of "the supremacy and the supreme legal force of the Russian Constitution" when determining if Russia, Russians, or Russian entities should comply with a judgment made by an international court.

The law is seen as a response to the Russian government's having lost several high-profile cases brought against it at international courts.

The new legislation also establishes the order and the procedure for processing an inquiry to the court.

The law grants the Russian president and government the right to submit such inquiries on international court verdicts to Russia's Constitutional Court.

[Ed Anger]

I sorta don't blame 'em for that one.

[Liep]

Putin is holding his annual press conference and it's suitably evasive. Instead of answering questions about corruption by government officials he tells a joke about a fur coat. Almost Gogolesque.

[Syt]

Putin is holding his annual press conference and it's suitably evasive. Instead of answering questions about corruption by government officials he tells a joke about a fur coat. Almost Gogolesque.

Didn't he tell a story like that last year?

[Liep]

Putin is holding his annual press conference and it's suitably evasive. Instead of answering questions about corruption by government officials he tells a joke about a fur coat. Almost Gogolesque.

Didn't he tell a story like that last year?

Wouldn't surprise me.

[Liep]

Putin also said that Blatter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

[The Brain]

Putin also said that Blatter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

True. Blatter isn't Bush.

[KRonn]

Putin is holding his annual press conference and it's suitably evasive. Instead of answering questions about corruption by government officials he tells a joke about a fur coat. Almost Gogolesque.

Is that a fur coat he acquired by himself by wrestling down a huge brown bear in the forest?   

[Malthus]

Putin is holding his annual press conference and it's suitably evasive. Instead of answering questions about corruption by government officials he tells a joke about a fur coat. Almost Gogolesque.

Is that a fur coat he acquired by himself by wrestling down a huge brown bear in the forest?   

It was the fur from this unfortunate ... Rabbit. 

The KGB, the FBI and the CIA are all trying to prove they are the best at catching criminals. The Secretary General of the UN decides to set them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest, and each of them has to catch it. The CIA people go in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations, they conclude that the rabbit does not exist. The FBI goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and make no apologies: the rabbit had it coming. The KGB goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"

[KRonn]

    Malthus!   

[Duque de Bragança]

Putin also said that Blatter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

True. Blatter isn't Obama.

Fixed!

[The Minsky Moment]

Putin also said that Blatter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

He's right.
No one has done more to bring Americans and Europeans together.  He actually got Europeans expressing thanks over US extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction.

[Liep]

Putin also said that Blatter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

He's right.
No one has done more to bring Americans and Europeans together.  He actually got Europeans expressing thanks over US extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction.

True.

[Malthus]

   Malthus!

It's an oldie. 

[Razgovory]

"Accidentally"

https://www.rt.com/news/321640-leaked-russian-nuclear-torpedo/

'Assured unacceptable damage': Russian TV accidentally leaks secret 'nuclear torpedo' design

The Kremlin has confirmed "some secret data" was accidentally leaked when Russian TV stations broadcast material apparently showing blueprints from a nuclear torpedo, designed to be used against enemy coastal installations.

During President Vladimir Putin's meeting with military officials in Sochi, where the development of Russia's military capabilities were being discussed, a number of TV crews were able to capture footage of a paper that was certainly not meant for public viewing.



The presentation slide titled "Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6" showed some drawings of a new nuclear submarine weapons system. It is apparently designed to bypass NATO radars and any existing missile defense systems, while also causing heavy damage to "important economic facilities" along the enemy's coastal regions.

The footnote to the slide stated that Status-6 is intended to cause "assured unacceptable damage" to an adversary force. Its detonation "in the area of the enemy coast" would result in "extensive zones of radioactive contamination" that would ensure that the region would not be used for "military, economic, business or other activity" for a "long time."

According to the blurred information provided in the slide, the system represents a massive torpedo, designated as "self-propelled underwater vehicle," with a range of up to 10 thousand kilometers and capable of operating at a depth of up to 1,000 meters.

It remains unclear if such a system is indeed being developed or the slide was presented as just one of the options the Russian military could hypothetically offer. However, according to the leaked paper, the weapons system could be developed by the Rubin design bureau for marine engineering, and may potentially be delivered using nuclear-powered "Project 09852" and "Project 09851" submarines.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that major TV channels had leaked some classified data on Tuesday following the meeting in Sochi.

"It is true some secret data got into the shot, and it was subsequently deleted," Peskov said on Wednesday. "We hope that this won't happen again."

During Tuesday's meeting Putin stressed that Russia will counter NATO's US-led missile shield program through new "strike systems capable of penetrating any missile defenses."

"Over the past three years, companies of the military-industrial complex have created and successfully tested a number of prospective weapons systems that are capable of performing combat missions in a layered missile defense system," Putin said. "Such systems have already begun to enter the military this year. And now we are talking about development of new types of weapons."

A torpedo that isn't picked up on Radar isn't that big a deal.