• 336: Russia’s Crime and Punishment: How to Prosecute the Illegal War in Ukraine, submitted on 2023-01-18 00:36:28+08:00.
• 337: Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Don’t Fear Putin’s Demise, submitted on 2023-01-21 00:15:27+08:00.
• 338: Peru’s Democratic Dysfunction: How to Fix the Country’s Broken System, submitted on 2023-01-21 22:41:09+08:00.

336: Russia’s Crime and Punishment: How to Prosecute the Illegal War in Ukraine, submitted on 2023-01-18 00:36:28+08:00.

—– 336.1 —–2023-01-18 00:38:24+08:00:

From Oona Hathaway: “As the conflict in Ukraine is about to enter its second year, Ukraine and the West are accelerating efforts to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t get away with his illegal war. That has meant the West supplying weapons that were previously off the table, but it has also meant renewed attention to accountability. In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear that justice is a key condition for peace. “This,” he explained, “is what stokes the greatest emotions.” But while there are courts where Russians can be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, a major piece is missing: there is nowhere to try Putin and other top Russian leaders for launching the war in the first place. For this, a special tribunal for the crime of aggression is needed.

For months, Ukrainian representatives have been quietly working to generate support for a special tribunal. The proposal picked up steam in mid-December, when the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, endorsed the creation of a tribunal and pledged to “start working with the international community to get the broadest international support possible for this specialized court.” In mid-December, while accepting the European Union’s top human rights award, Zelensky called on states to form a special tribunal to prosecute “the crime of Russian aggression.” At the same time, a Ukrainian delegation, hoping to capitalize on the momentum, arrived in Washington, D.C., seeking U.S. support for a special tribunal.

The effort to establish a special tribunal may seem quixotic. After all, plenty of criminal investigations into crimes committed by Russians during the war are already underway in both domestic and international courts. Why add another court to the mix? But without a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, the fundamental crime of launching and waging this illegal war—a crime without which the other crimes would not have taken place—would go entirely unpunished. Creating a court that has jurisdiction to try this crime is an essential step in the global effort to reject Russia’s blatantly illegal war and, with it, Putin’s willingness to destroy the modern international legal order in pursuit of a new Russian empire.”

337: Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Don’t Fear Putin’s Demise, submitted on 2023-01-21 00:15:27+08:00.

—– 337.1 —–2023-01-21 00:23:57+08:00:

[SS from the essay by Garry Kasparov, Chair of the Human Rights Foundation, Co-Founder of the Russian Action Committee, and a former world chess champion; and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Co-Founder of the Russian Action Committee and a former political prisoner in Russia]

Putin’s effort to restore Russia’s lost empire is destined to fail. The moment is therefore ripe for a transition to democracy and a devolution of power to the regional levels. But for such a political transformation to take place, Putin must be defeated militarily in Ukraine. A decisive loss on the battlefield would pierce Putin’s aura of invincibility and expose him as the architect of a failing state, making his regime vulnerable to challenge from within.
The West, and above all the United States, is capable of providing the military and financial support to hasten the inevitable and propel Ukraine to a speedy victory. But the Biden administration still hasn’t coalesced around a clear endgame for the war, and some U.S. officials have suggested that Kyiv should consider giving up part of its territory in pursuit of peace—suggestions that are not reassuring. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made it clear that the Ukrainian people will never accept such a deal. Any territorial concessions made to Putin will inevitably lead to another war down the road.
At the root of Washington’s unwillingness to supply the necessary weapons lies a fear of the potential consequences of decisively defeating Russia in Ukraine. Many in the Biden administration believe that Putin’s downfall could trigger the collapse of Russia, plunging the nuclear-armed state into chaos and potentially strengthening China. But such fears are overstated.

338: Peru’s Democratic Dysfunction: How to Fix the Country’s Broken System, submitted on 2023-01-21 22:41:09+08:00.

—– 338.1 —–2023-01-21 22:42:49+08:00:

[SS from the essay by Will Freeman, Ph.D. candidate in Politics at Princeton University and a 2022 Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru]

Peru’s troubles go deeper than the conflict over the election calendar. Even if the president and the entire Congress resigned tomorrow, democratic erosion would likely persist. That is because Peru is afflicted by a more serious issue: the weaponization of checks and balances by both branches of government. It is too easy for Congress to impeach the president and for the president to shut down Congress. Until reforms prevent the president and Congress from abusing their powers to rein in each other, Peru will continue to spiral.