In Russian, there is a term антиправовое законодательство which means legislation that is against the nature and logic of the law. To understand it better think of bolshevik’s revolutionary court or Stalin’s USSR. While Stalin’s constitution on paper may have looked naively well-intentioned in some parts, there were criminal laws that opposed it. Then there also were procedural resolutions that contradicted both. And in the end, it all came down to brutal force of low-level terror that ignored all that, based on documented directives from superiors in the line of command. Of course, all that wasted paper negated the classic Roman idea of competition between prosecution and defense in confirmation of facts. And to no surprise, it didn’t have a place for the inalienable human rights of an individual.
In modern Russia, it continues to be the mundane reality of everyday life. Defense lawyers get long prison terms for doing their job, honest patriots are being prosecuted for state treason, people are killed in prison for demanding what’s written in the constitution, the government produces legislations that allow to take relatives hostage… It’s old news. I decided to refresh your memory because today I’ve stumbled upon another example of such lawless law in action on the other side…
The thing is, after I got through the Russian censorship mechanism blocking YouTube for internet users inside Russia, I found out the copyright holder prohibited YouTube from playing some music in Russia. It was the music by Alexander Scriabin, a composer who was born in Russia, lived in Russia, and died in Russia… some 110 years ago… Who is that copyright holder then? Why, of course, it’s a multi-national megacorporation owned mostly by one of Putin’s oligarchs in the USA who made a public stunt to distract attention from the history of his enrichment and partnerships in Russia.
Coincidentally, today is the day the re-elected president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, is going to release a whole bunch of executive orders, following his inauguration, some of which go against the existing US laws, international agreements, and also the constitutional birthright of citizenship. The latter may even break the fundamental ex post facto principle of law.
That’s one of the signs of our civilization’s collapse on the global scale, and also that’s the reason why I will have a hard independent copy of any content any chance I get. No matter what lawless servants of power may think about it.
