Russia is a superpower. Like it or lump it, its got a lot of missiles sitting in silos waiting for the button to be pushed. Its also enormous. It’s also entirely foreign debt free and has massive energy reserves.

The US has those same missiles as Russia. It’s in debt up to its neck. Its mired in a bloodbath of its own making in Iraq. It is energy hungry and hasnt enough.

Spot the difference? On what precise grounds LR is the US a superpower and Russia not? And dont give us this usual bullshit line about the USA being one big Disneyland and Russia mired in poverty. The US has massive social problems too and you know it. Take a trip to Mississippi sometime, or Louisiana. Laissez Le Bon Temps Roule my arse. More like let the poor starving and homeless, like your own useless incompetent government did after Katriona. And they were in atrocious poverty before Katriona.

And lastly -dont fool yourself cos you arent fooling anyone remotely sentinent. Hypocrisy did not collapse the USSR. Low oil prices and Chernobyl did. I honestly dont understand how you cant cop that.

Why do you ask me for evidence when I rely on instinct, yet feel no obligation to rely on mere instict yourself?

Another question of great interest to me is: Why is Russia “just a normal mid-income country” when it comes to issues of corruption, violence and lack of democracy, but a “superpower” when it comes to membership on the G-8 and UN Security Council and being treated like an equal in dialogue with Europe and America? Isn’t this the same type of psychotic hypocrisy that utterly destroyed the USSR?

Let me ask you, do YOU have any proper evidence or references to support YOUR argument that Russian judicial process is unfair? And I mean proper evidence, published, non-controversial data (thats what we use in science, you cant reference something that has any uncertainty to it). Do you have any solid, proven evidence for example that Yukos did not engage in massive fraud and tax evasion? If so, please provide evidence to support. And again, i reiterate, proper evidence, not links to blogs like Publius Pundit or other websites. These are not scientifically acceptable references. You wouldnt be published in the science community. Which has the highest standards for publishing. Are you familiar with the Russian tax code? How do you actually KNOW that Yukos or Khodorkovsky didnt get a fair trial?

ps quotes from State Department officials etc do not count as references. These are opinions, not solid, non-controversial published evidence.

Broadly speaking, by successes I’m taking about cases where the judiciary applied the law as it stands, and made a judgement without external interference. A failure would be when the opposite applies.

There are, however, plenty of stories in the media about Russian court cases, some of which have been what I would call successes for the judiciary, and some of which I would call failures. The cases relating to Yukos, for example, have seen both successes and failures (although more of the latter, in my opinion).

As for ranking the Russian justice system among other mid-income countries, that’s a judgement based primarily on instinct. “Mid-income countries” is, of course, a very broad generalisation, and it should be taken in the context of attempting to draw a simple comparison. Having said that, I think that, generally, it is fair to say that if one were to attempt to draw comparisons between the wealth of a country and the independence of its judiciary, the results (with the exception of some anomalies) would broadly show that the richer the country the freer the judiciary.

Absolutely – the Russian justice system has its successes, and it has its failures. I’d agree that it is more or less on a par with that of other mid-income countries. In common with the rest of Russia, I think the judiciary’s biggest problem is that of corruption, which means its is difficult to be sure that a verdict is not tainted.

Do you have any data to support your claim? Or are you just speculating based on your feelings?

”And again, the main question isn’t even whether PWC violated the law, it’s whether the Russian government can give them a fair trial.”

are you joking? Of course its about whether or not they broke the law. The Russian authorities, as they are fully entitled to, are investigating the operations of a company on Russian soil. Just because you dont like it doesnt mean they shouldnt do it. Russia is as entitled as any other country to collect tax owed if it is indeed owed. One of your biggest failures is that you dont seem to understand that Russia is not in the juristiction of the United States. Russia, believe it or not, is a sovereign state. It is entitled to do as it wishes without needing to check with you or your hopeless government first.

AGAIN, I REITERATE

RUSSIA DOES NOT BELONG TO THE USA. IT IS NOT ANSWERABLE TO THE USA.

As for your comment about about the US being less popular than Russia, doesnt that tell you anything?) Does it totally go over your head like everything else? Irony lost eh?)