We speak legal English. Matters at law. Материалы межвузовской научно-практической конференции (Москва, 27 ноября 2015 г.)
.pdfConsequently, it should be noted that the presumption of innocence in administrative law causes many questions and discussions, moreover, the realization of this principle still gives rise to doubt.
Г. Р. Петренко
The problems of juvenile justice in Russia
Juvenile justice is the area of criminal law applicable to persons not old enough to be held responsible for criminal acts. In most states, the age for criminal culpability is set at 18 years. Juvenile law is mainly governed by state law and most states have enacted a juvenile code. The main goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation rather than punishment. Juveniles can be transferred into adult court if the juvenile court waives or relinquishes its jurisdiction. State statutes creating juvenile courts and providing methods for dealing with juvenile delinquency have generally been upheld by courts as an acceptable extension of state policy power to ensure the safety and welfare of children. The doctrine of parens patriae authorizes the state to legislate for the protection, care, custody, and maintenance of children within its jurisdiction.
As for the Russian Federation, the Juvenile system is based on the Declaration of Child’s Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, 20, 1989. The Russian Federation supported it and became its party in June, 13, 1990. It was recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also by the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights. The main legal act in Russia about rights and interests of a child is the Federal Law №124 ”On basic guarantees of the child’s rights in R.F.”, adopted in July, 24, 1998. The state policy in the interests of children is significant and it’s based on the following principles: the lawful providing of the child’s rights; state support of a family; responsibility of official persons for violation of rights and interests of a child; support of public organizations which activity is connected with the protection with rights and interests of a child. All these statements are guaranteed by the Constitution of R.F., the Family Code of R.F. and other legal normative acts of R.F.
Unfortunately, in most cases all these legal normative acts are only declarative, because there are no technologies of their realization in our country both at federal and local levels. But we hope this problem will be developed.
As to the juvenile justice in West-European countries, there is a distrustful attitude of Russian society towards it. So, why should we distrust this juvenile system? Because it’s based on misalliance of their principles to Russian juvenile principles which are founded on the unique mental activity, customs and traditions, spiritual consolidation and faith of Russians. The equality of parents’ and children’s law will eventually lead to the destruction of a separately taken person and to the degradation of a family and society in the whole. An active introduction of Western juvenile justice may cause law violence among teenagers, the damage of family values, demonstrations and protests of parents. Consequently, we will have a lot of orphans, suicide accidents among parents and children.
A wide range of a variety of rights in the field of the family structure, methods of upbringing, ways of discipline maintenances and educational process will be given to social officials of Juvenile justice. If these structures consider parents’ behavior towards their children rude and aggressive or if children have any complaint to their parents, social organs have a power to deprive parents of their rights and to hand a child over to the organs
91
of guardianship. There is normal for social services to interfere into the family institute, into the field of upbringing, education, cultural, moral, mental development of offsprings, their health, living conditions and relationships among family members or any social groups. Using elements of Western juvenile justice in our state, we should remember that in that countries the main part in children’s and teenagers’ upbringing belongs to social representatives such as psychologist, teachers and doctors but NOT PARENTS. Their authority for children is practically of no importance, but such state of things doesn’t coincide with social, political views of modern Russian society.
One more aspect of Western Juvenile justice is exact interpretation of terms. The usage of rather subjective and ambiguous expressions and definitions in legal system, which are often met in different law acts, may direct Russian Federation to the lowest stage of the development of law. The main principle of Russian legislative power is uniformity and uniqueness in understanding of any law or act. This tendency is a characteristic feature of Russian judicial system.
A very important fact of juvenile institute imperfectness is a negative experience of foreign countries. For example, in France a level of teenagers’ crimes has increased because of rather mild conditions of juvenile justice which lead to permissiveness and fearlessness among teenagers. They are involved in robbery, thefts, arsons of schools, hospitals and shops as well as murders and rapes. In France every second person is deprived of his parent’s rights due to faulty reasons and motives but juvenile justice presumes this fact legal.
To sum up, I would like to make the following conclusion: the use of juvenile justice the in Russian Federation will lead to the destruction of the family, and the loss of parental influence on children. Children can make their own decisions in an inappropriate age and can blackmail parents to court and the deprivation of parental rights. This situation is confirmed by negative experiences in the countries of Western Europe. Also, today the policy of the organs of juvenile justice is reduced to exceptional humanization of punishments applied to the minors. This fact involves the impunity of the perpetrators and the formation among children a sense of permissiveness and irresponsibility. In West European countries the juvenile court exists. But is it necessary to create juvenile courts on the Western concept? In my opinion, the Russian Federation must not take the principles of foreign juvenile law but begin to shape and form its own ones, in order to build up a completely new legal structure, taking into account the specific nature of the Russian people and statehood.
Д. В. Пивнюк
Familienrecht in Deutschland
Das Familienrecht gehört zum Zivilrecht und ist größtenteils im Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch (BGB) geregelt. Es beinhalt vor allem die Rechtsverhältnisse der Ehe und Familie mit dem Schwerpunkt Eheschließung, Scheidung und Unterhalt. Es regelt aber auch die Rechtsbeziehung der Eltern zu den Kindern, also das Sorgerecht, das Vaterschaftsrecht sowie das Recht des Kindesunterhalts. Vormundschaft und rechtliche Betreuung sind ebenfalls Teil des Familienrechts.
Das Familienrecht gehört zum Zivilrecht und ist hauptsächlich im 4. Buch des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuchs (BGB) in den §§ 1297 - 1921 BGB geregelt. Es betrifft vor allem das Verhältnis der Menschen, die durch Verlöbnis, Ehe, Lebenspartnerschaft
92
oder Verwandtschaft miteinander verbunden sind. In den §§ 1773 - 1921 BGB werden Vormundschaft, rechtliche Betreuung und Pflegschaft festgelegt, die aber eine verwandtschaftliche Beziehung nicht zwangsläufig voraussetzen. Das Rechtsinstitut der Lebenspartnerschaft ist im Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz (LPartG) geregelt. Für gerichtliche Verfahren sind in der Zivilprozessordnung (ZPO) und im Gesetz über das Verfahren in Familiensachen und in den Angelegenheiten der freiwilligen Gerichtsbarkeit (FamFG), das das Gesetz über die Angelegenheiten der freiwilligen Gerichtsbarkeit (FGG) abgelöst hat, spezielle Vorschriften enthalten. Bedeutung für das Kindesunterhaltsrecht haben daneben die Regelbetragverordnung und das Unterhaltsvorschussgesetz. In der DDR war das Familienrecht seit 1965 außerhalb des BGB in einem eigenen Familiengesetzbuch (FGB) geregelt.
Die Ehe wird in Deutschland als Rechtsinstitut durch das GG (Art. 6) geschützt; sie ist als vorgegebene Institution die frei gewählte Vereinigung eines Mannes und einer Frau zu einer umfassenden, grundsätzlich unauflösbaren Lebensgemeinschaft. Für gleichgeschlechtliche Partnerschaften ist einfachgesetzlich das Institut der eingetragenen Lebenspartnerschaft geschaffen worden. Art. 6 Abs. 1 GG ist sowohl normiertes Grundrecht des Einzelnen als auch Ausdruck eines Elementes staatlicher Ordnung. Als Grundrecht garantiert es die Freiheit vor schädlichen Eingriffen des Staates in den privaten Bereich der Ehe. Praktisch bedeutsam ist dies z. B. bei der Ausweisung von mit Deutschen verheirateten Ausländern, die nur zulässig ist, wenn sich das öffentliche Interesse an der Ausweisung (aus schwerwiegenden Gründen der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung) gegen das Recht, die Ehe im Inland fortzuführen, durchsetzt.
Eheschließung: Die Ehe kommt durch Vertrag zustande und erlangt durch die vorgeschriebene Form der Eheschließung die staatliche Anerkennung als familienrechtliches Gemeinschaftsverhältnis. Eine gültige Ehe kann nur vor einem Standesbeamten bei gleichzeitiger persönlicher Anwesenheit der Ehewilligen geschlossen werden (obligatorische Zivilehe, §§ 1310 ff. BGB). Die kirchliche Trauung hat grundsätzlich keine bürgerlich-rechtliche Wirkung und darf erst nach der standesamtlichen vorgenommen werden (§ 67 Personenstandsgesetz); in Notfällen kann die kirchliche Eheschließung der staatlichen vorangehen (kirchliche Nottrauung), bewirkt aber keine vor dem Gesetz gültige Eheschließung.
Über Jahrzehnte regelte das Ehegesetz nicht nur das Zustandekommen sondern auch die Scheidung von Ehen. Mittlerweile kann man die Voraussetzungen für die Ehescheidung in §§1564 – 1568 BGB, den Vorschriften §622 und §629d ZPO und in §630 ZPO nachlesen. Scheidungsfolgen wie Fragen des Unterhaltsanspruchs oder den Versorgungsausgleich regeln die Paragrafen 1569 f.f. BGB.
Г. А. Поласухин
Offshores: definition and regulation
Offshore is a financial center, which raises foreign capital by the way of granting special tax exemptions to the foreign companies, which are registered in the country of center location. Using of the offshore is one of the most popular and effective method of the tax projection, otherwise specialists in a financial law does not have consensus about what is offshore…
93
So, Russian law system has defined only the term of offshore zone.
Ex facto of Ministry of Finance departmental order № 108n and Bank of Russia instruction № 1317y, offshore zone includes states and territories which are granting beneficial tax regime, which is does not provide disclosure of information in financial operations.
At the same time offshore zone is only one component in the definition of the offshore. Generally, comprehension of the offshore includes: offshore zone, offshore companies, offshore bank, moreover, it can include offshore trusts and offshore insurance companies, where offshore schemes are used.
There is no any universal list of the offshore zones, but central banks of all countries and International Monetary Fund tries to detect nascence of new offshore zones.
There are two offshore zone lists in the Russian law system. One of them can be found intheBankofRussiainstruction.Theprimaryfocusofthislistisagencyarrangementbetween non-resident offshore banks. This document breaks down offshore zones by financial visibility. The other list of the offshore zones can be found in Ministry of Finance departmental order. It contains the list of offshore zones to which special tax rate for the financial operations with offshore companies applies.
Legal Subjects of the offshore
Offshore company is a foreign company, which is registered in an offshore zone. These companies have not right to work in the country of tax residence. Smaller nations encourage the creating of the offshore companies for offshore business development, which shows an extra profit.
Offshore bank is a bank in an offshore center, which works only with other similar banks or with the foreign companies.
Offshore trust is the trust which is created by non-resident of the offshore zone and is managed by a beneficiary who is non-resident too. It contains of property which is located in any country except offshore country. The only requirement is that in any time one of the trust protectors must be a resident of an offshore country.
Types of the financial operations (schemes) of using of the offshore 1) Import of goods scheme
When the goods are on the import to the country through offshore, their price usually undercharges for the minimization of the VAT and customs charges, moreover, it is necessary to take into account customs value, because too low value can trigger the rise of VAT, while too high one will raise customs charges. In these circumstances the seller should set a price which will minimize the sum of payments to the state. Also it is necessary to know that the sum of VAT can be undercharged if the buyer will pay to the firm which pays discharged harmonized tax or to the firm which is under the simplified tax system.
2) Agent scheme
Offshore company hires any firm as an agent, when it’s planning to make business, and that firm is acting on requested of the employer. Totally the company paying the tax only of the agent award (it is usually a fixed payment or 1–2% of product value).
3) Paying of royalty
Offshore company creates a trademark and register it in the patent bureau of the resident state. After that offshore company sell the right of using of this trademark to the another offshore company. Then offshore company sell this franchise to the resident with royalty paying. Later the company pays royalty to the offshore using an agreement for avoidance of double taxation. According to this agreement the royalty paying by the resident to the offshore is not taxable in the state of residence. The offshore receives its agent award, and the main part of paying is transferred to the account of the offshore company.
94
Law regulation of the financial operations with offshores
The Tax Code of the Russian Federation implemented by the Federal law № 227 includes the terms of recognition of a related party transaction. It is a deal when one of its parties is a body which registration place or domicile or tax residence is a state or a territory that is involved in a list approved by the Letter of Ministry of Finance. If the deal is defined as a related party transaction it causes extra control by tax authority.
What does it mean in fact?
1. By the request of federal executive organ, which controls taxes and other charges, the taxpayer must perform the following documentation relating to the deal:
1)Activities of taxpayer who negotiated a related party transaction (or the group of the same deals), which are incidental with that deal.
2)A list of persons (including countries and states where they have a tax residence) with whom a related party transaction was negotiated.
3)An information about the rights of the transaction parties.
2.In case of using pricing methods by taxpayer, give information about using methods:
1.Substation of the choice and method of pricing.
2.Listing of the information sources.
3.Calculation of the market prices interval and summary of the income.
4.Information about the economic gain.
5.Information about the other factors, which influence on the price (profitability).
6.Corrections of the tax base which were made by taxpayer for the correct price identification.
So, to sum up all the facts and information which I have report to you we can make a conclusion that using of the offshore is very disputable way of the tax optimization, because it trenches upon the tax evasion which is determined as a crime. On the other hand, it is one of the most effective way of profit growth for the companies which saves about a trillion US dollars yearly. Proscription of offshore using will stop business and economic development in Russia, but the latest news tells us that the Government knows what to do. So we can wish it every success in this sphere or come forward with the initiative if you have any ideas how to improve the way of regulation.
А. С. Политухин
The problems of coordination
of law enforcement bodies on fighting corruption in the Russian Federation
Corruption is a complicated social and economic phenomenon that takes place at all stages of the history of a state. It can be found in all state-organized societies and takes different forms. The process of taking measures against corruption very often faces the questions that have been really significant for Russia during the centuries. One of them has been and is the question of the role of the prosecutor’s office in corruption crimes prevention.
95
According to the survey of non-government organization “Transparency International”, in 2014 the Russian Federation was ranked 136th out of 174 in the ”Corruption Perception Index”. Corruption influences our state badly. Firstly, it negatively influences international relations; it leads to the loss of popularity of Russian markets for foreign investment. Secondly, it causes the loss of trust to the government with its citizens. For the Russian Federation the corruption in the state and local government has become the main obstacle for the political, economic and spiritual development of the society, a real threat to the national security of the country. We can see a legal nihilism among people in the society, the loss of trust to the authorities, to the principles of legality and social justice.
The solution of the problem demands cooperation of the law enforcement agencies. So, the counselor of the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Alexander Mitsikov says in his article: ”We can resist crimes as it is known, only with the consensus of all the institutions of the state and society. The consensus will ensure the necessary level of coordination”.
The most topical problem is the matter of the expansion of the coordination concept subject in the sphere of fighting corruption. It was studied in the research of Denis Plugar, the senior lecturer of the Department of public prosecutor’s supervision of the Academy of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. During the conference ”Corruption prevention by prosecutorial supervision” in 2015 he noticed that the subject of coordination can be expanded if all the cases of identification, detection and stopping the offenses of corruption will be included into it and not only the crimes that are prosecuted under criminal law.
Fighting corruption as one of the system threat to the security of the Russian Federation suggests the complex system of activities on the part of the state. It is possible to reach a consensus by coordinated efforts of all the authorities and organizations. First of all, it will be achieved by effective cooperation of all the bodies of the anti-corruption activities based on strong legality and organization.
According to the federal law № 273 ”On fighting corruption” special attention is paid to using of anti-corruption measures that include prevention of corruption and prosecution of the people who committed corruption crimes. Under the law the measures required to take are: to designate responsibility for the prevention of bribery offences, to adopt procedures of cooperating with authorities, to implement procedures to ensure ethical business conduct, to adopt a code of conduct for all employees, to create policies for conflicts of interest, to prevent the use of false documents.
The corruption offenses are detected not only by law enforcement bodies but also by supervisory institutions. So, by including the new participants with all legal rights and other bodies of financial, budget and other kind of control, in particular the Accounting Chamber, the Financial Monitoring Service and others into the anti-corruption coordination activity we will ensure an effective corruption crime prevention.
In the Republic of Karelia, the anti-corruption department in the prosecutor’s office was established on the 26th of February, 2008. Anti-corruption measures were discussed at the meeting of the coordination council on anti-corruption and economic crimes of the Head of Karelia on the 8th of April, 2008.
According to statistics from the head of the anti-corruption department of the Karelian Prosecutor’s office Dmitri Egorov in 2015 the most corrupted branches are: use of state and municipal property, the enforcement of state and local government service, state and municipal procurement, provision of medical services. Six large scale crimes, which were committed by organized criminal groups, were detected. In total, 99 criminal cases, connected with corruption, were brought.
96
The prosecutor stated that the quality of legal analysis done by local prosecutors leaves much to be desired including also the search for corruption factors. Besides it doesn’t fully meet the demands for the anti-corruption, anti-extremism, anti-terror activity. Single facts of criminal cases on bribery, extremism activity and also the decreasing number of registered corruption and terror crimes obviously don’t show the level of legality in the spheres of economy.
The coordination activity prognosis means special calculation of the possible level of corruption crimes and corruption in non-criminal offenses. It should be stated that law enforcement bodies of Russia have opportunities to fight the corruption effectively. The corruption crimes can get minimized if the consolidated efforts of all the law enforcement bodies are taken. This work will be done on the coordinated meeting of the chiefs of these bodies with the main role of the prosecutor. Common level of corruption in the country remains high, but we should take into consideration that this negative phenomenon can’t be won not for a day, not even for a year. Only long termed measures that are correctly organized and carried out within the unified state anti-corruption policy will bring success.
А. С. Попова
The issues of dual citizenship in the Russian Federation
The concept of dual citizenship has been known since the days of ancient Greece, ancient Rome. So, the Romans did not allow appearance of other citizenship, Roman citizenship itself was an exceptional advantage. In the Middle Ages appeared double citizenship, which was possible for the members of the nobility, the higher clerisy. The origins of the modern approach to this concept appeared from the middle of the 19th century in connection with the active migration of the population of Europe, through which the number of dual nationals grew. But the attitude towards this legal status was not likeable or even extremely negative.
Indeed, from the standpoint of the ideological approach of the Soviet law the dual citizenship in the history of our country was not recognized, there existed a principle of single citizenship. And currently in the Russian legislation it was formed a vague definition of the mentioned notion. ”...Dual citizenship is a notion implying the fact that a citizen of the Russian Federation has the citizenship of a foreign state...”4 that is stated in Art. 3 of the Federal Law ”On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”. And as the part of the concept of citizenship it is inseparably connected with the state5. In particular, the dual citizenship implies a certain legal status of a person, which allows him to be a citizen of two or more states at the same time.
There are two approaches for the interpretation of dual citizenship in the Russian Federation. First of all, it is a special institution of the international law, which consists of a plurality of rules acting in the system, which regulates the procedure for acquiring
4On Citizenship of the Russian Federation: The Federal Law of 31.05.2002 № 62-FZ (ed. by 31.12.2014) // SZ RF. 2002. №
22.Art. 2031.
5Belov A. Dual citizenship and the issue of loyalty // Jurisprudence. 2002. № 2.
97
citizenship of another state. Similarly, the dual citizenship serves as a specific social phenomenon, when a citizen of one state acquires the right to dual citizenship (in the scientific and scientific-political literature it is referred to as double (dual) or multiple). Therefore, any case of having a citizen’s another citizenship is legally treated as a situation of dual citizenship.
However, we should note that the legislation at the moment has no clear distinction between dual nationals and persons who have a second nationality. ”The status of dual citizenship appears from the citizens of those countries between which the agreement on the mutual recognition of the dual citizenship has been signed”.6 Currently contracts on the settlement of issues of dual citizenship of the Russian Federation were only concluded with the Republic of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
If a Russian citizen is the owner of an Israel passport, then on the Russian soil he is considered as a citizen of the Russian Federation and must obey the applicable Russian laws, but being in Israel, this person also receives the protection of the host country. Therefore, persons having two or more passports, can be called up for military service in each state, which recognizes them as their own citizens. A different procedure of military service is provided for persons with dual citizenship. This is the essence of legal status for persons with dual citizenship.
In Russia there are the following problems of dual citizenship:
―absence of accurate terminology, the conceptual device (including determination of the legislators themselves);
―dual citizenship is recognized as an exceptional case and not designed for general application;
―also, allowing dual citizenship, the Russian Federation sets limits of such status for citizens.
It should be noted that the dual citizenship includes both the legal and the political aspect of the human condition. We believe that the feeling for the Motherland and the availability of the passport as the proof of supplies (primarily legal) to a particular country are two different things. From the standpoint of the psychology the dual citizenship allows to find attractive to many people the status of ”citizen of the world”. It’s generally known that a person because of its nature is being freedom-loving and always strives for freedom, including outside the framework of belonging to a particular state. Thus, despite the fact that one-third of Russians support the application of penalties in respect of individuals who are treated as dual citizens, hiding their status, every seventh is still not averse to receive the same legal status.
Essentially the adoption of dual citizenship is an important step in cooperation between states on the international stage, and we appreciate this institution of dual citizenship as a progressive phenomenon. In addition, it promotes the exchange of personnel and working resources; it creates the possibility of employment and property ownership, the choice of medical establishments and social assistance, more extensive financial resources and simplifies visa policy.
On the other hand, it is clear that the paradigm of Russian society does not allow radically to simplify and develop the institution of dual citizenship to come to a clear right sample of this institution, supported by the majority. So, it’s possible to overcome conflicts, but only through the ratification of international treaties with other countries, in addition to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
*This English version is based on the materials of my course work devoted to Constitutional law.
6 S. Greenfield ”dual citizenship” and ”dual citizenship” — two sides of the same coin // Israeli law and legislation: official website. URL: http: //pravo.israelinfo.ru/articles/img/2107 (the date of circulation: 04.21.2015).
98
Э. Г. Рамазанова
The legal problems
of the Caspian Sea region
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world located at the junction of Europe and Asia, called a sea because of its size and because of the fact that its bed is piled over with oceanic crust. The length of the Caspian Sea from the north to the south is about 1,200 kilometers. It is divided, according to the physical and geographical parameters, into 3 parts — Northern Caspian, Middle Caspian and South Caspian. A lot of oil and gas is extracted from the Caspian Sea, we also observe development of navigation and fishing. According to the US, resources of the Caspian basin are estimated as follows: 1733 billion barrels of oil, 232 trillion cubic meters of gas, and these figures are diluted. The Caspian Sea holds about 90% of the world reserves of sturgeon. The first mention of the Caspian Sea is found on ancient clay tablets discovered during excavations of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Then it was called the great eastern sea. Hecataeus of Miletus described it as the Hyrcanian sea. Herodotus first suggested that it was not connected with any other sea. In its thousand-year history the Caspian Sea has had about 70 titles. Its modern name of the Caspian Sea was the name of an ancient tribe of Caspians that inhabited the right bank of the sea in the 2nd millennium B.C.
The main problem of the Caspian Sea, in our opinion, is to assign its status. Until the 18th century Iran’s domination along the Caspian coast had caused no problems connected with the determination of the status of the Caspian Sea. In the 18th century there appeared the necessity to define the legal status of the Caspian Sea coast. We have traced the following steps of the decision-making process concerning the status of the Caspian Sea.
1.17th–19th centuries were under the Treaty of 1723, signed between Russia and Persia, according to which the right to have a fleet in the Caspian Sea was granted only to Russia.
2.In 1921–1940 the situation with the right to access the Caspian Sea was specified in the agreement between Russia and Iran, signed on February 26, 1921.
3.1941–1990: the main legal document of this period was the UN Convention signed in 1982.
4.In 1991–1995 the Caspian Sea coast was assigned to five Caspian states as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
5.In the period of 1996–1998 Russia and Iran started to discuss a compromise as regards the Caspian Sea coast division.
6.Since 1998 till today the negotiations between the Caspian countries have changed to the format of bilateral relations. The problem of defining the legal status of the Caspian countries has no single point of view as regards the use of mineral resources. There is no clarity in the use of biological resources and the resumption of the Caspian Sea. The debate may lead to interstate conflicts.
From the beginning Azerbaijan’s position has been as follows: the process of the Caspian
Sea region division should be based on the principles and norms of international law, in particular, the Sea Convention of 1982. Each state within the sector has full sovereignty.
Iran declares that the Caspian Sea region should be divided into national sectors equally.
99
Kazakhstan’s position remains unchanged — the seabed and the subsoil of the Caspian sea should be divided among the coastal states in such a way that each of them will have national jurisdiction and exclusive rights to the part of the sea adjacent to the national coast.
The position of the Russian Federation — Russia offered to consider the Caspian Sea as an asset of 5 states for a long time. However, in 1998 the position of the Russian Federation underwent significant changes. Moscow advocated a distinction between the bottom of the sea and adjacent opposite sides of the median line running from the land borders while maintaining the water column in common use.
Developing mutually acceptable principles of economic activity in the Caspian Sea is becoming more urgent because this decision depends on continued peace in the region. The coastal states also face the problems of determining the geographical status of the Caspian Sea, of the division of the subsoil of the Caspian Sea and of the Caspian Sea environment protection. All these disputes are to be solved by the Caspian countries.
I’d like to add that all the above mentioned actions are also aimed at the preservation of the unique ecosystem of the Caspian Sea. The current environmental situation is the consequence of the lack of environmental legislation in the Caspian states. Therefore, it is necessary to pass the appropriate laws to prevent subsequent contamination of the Caspian Sea. Besides, it is the only source of drinking water for the residents.
Е. А. Ручкина
Causes of extremism
Extremism does not originate haphazardly. It must indeed have causes and motivation. Like living organisms, events and actions do not come out of the blue and cannot germinate without seeds. Rather, they are governed by the law of cause and effect-one of Allah’s sunan — In His creation. Knowledge of the causes in this respect is essential to enable us to define the remedy which, medically speaking, must always be preceded by diagnosis. But diagnosis is impossible — at least extremely difficult — when causes are not known.
We must realize at the outset that no single cause is wholly responsible for the spread of extremism. It is a complex phenomenon with numerous interrelated causes, some of which are direct, others indirect, some found in the distant past, others in the present. Consequently, we should not focus on one cause and totally ignore the others, as do people who advocate some schools of thought. Psychologists, and especially psychoanalysts, for instance, attribute all behavior to certain subconscious psychological causes.
The advocates of historical materialism emphasize economic forces which, they argue, create events and change the course of history. On the other hand, others who hold a more comprehensive and balanced view believe that the causes are complex and interrelated, producing various effects which, although differing from one cause to another, have their undeniable impact in the final analysis. It is important that we should not concentrate on one cause of extremism, as its causes are varied and could be direct or indirect, manifest or latent. The causes of extremism may be religious, political, social, economic, psychological, intellectual, or a combination of all of these. The main cause may be in the extremist himself, in his relationship with the members of his family, or — if
100