April 6, 2023
The Wall Street Journal
In 2002, President Vladimir Putin backed a new code of criminal procedure that, on paper, gave defendants the same rights as those in the West. In spite of reforms intending to seemingly iron out contradictions within the Russian legal system, the upcoming espionage trial of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will take place in a court system – likely in secret – with a rate of acquittal of less than one percent.
In an article appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Tom Firestone, Stroock partner and former Resident Adviser at the U.S. Embassy, says: “[o]n paper, it’s a court system with all sorts of pretense to modernity, but the reality is less encouraging. It’s basically an instrument of state control.”
Continuing, Firestone states, “[i]n many ways it was a major step forward. But gradually you saw authorities chip back on those provisions over time, so they didn’t insure the protections of defendants they were designed to insure.”
Click here to read the full article.
April 6, 2023
The Wall Street Journal
In 2002, President Vladimir Putin backed a new code of criminal procedure that, on paper, gave defendants the same rights as those in the West. In spite of reforms intending to seemingly iron out contradictions within the Russian legal system, the upcoming espionage trial of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will take place in a court system – likely in secret – with a rate of acquittal of less than one percent.
In an article appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Tom Firestone, Stroock partner and former Resident Adviser at the U.S. Embassy, says: “[o]n paper, it’s a court system with all sorts of pretense to modernity, but the reality is less encouraging. It’s basically an instrument of state control.”
Continuing, Firestone states, “[i]n many ways it was a major step forward. But gradually you saw authorities chip back on those provisions over time, so they didn’t insure the protections of defendants they were designed to insure.”
Click here to read the full article.
