The highly respected Bill Burke White is guest blogging over at Concurring Opinions, and has done a terrific post entitled “International Law and the New Russia.” Below is just an excerpt.

Indicative of Russia’s disregard for human rights and the failure of domestic institutions to constrain Kremlin excesses, is the fact that more than 20% of the current caseload of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) comes from Russia. When Russia looses these cases, which it often does, the government seems happy to use some of its new oil wealth to pay Court imposed fines, but then defy the Court, refusing to change offending legislation and rarely allowing domestic courts to implement ECtHR rulings. Perhaps most emblematic of Russia’s defiance of international human rights law may be the persecution, show trial, and inhumane detention of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Chairman of Yukos and once Russia’s wealthiest and most powerful oil executive. After Khodorkovsky broke a tacit deal with the Kremlin not to interfere in politics by funding anti-Kremlin parties, he was arrested on tax evasion charges and convicted in what can only be described as a show trial, in which he was unable to present evidence, call key witnesses, or build a meaningful case in his defense. He has been serving a sentence in a remote corner of Siberia in truly inhumane conditions and his life has been routinely threatened. As Khodorkovsky would have soon become eligible for parole, the Kremlin is likely to ensure that he is convicted once again in a second sham trial on further tax charges in the coming months. His case is currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights, though Russia seems likely to once again disregard the Court’s ruling.