Tax Chief's Jailing Could Signal Watershed In Fight Against 'Corrupt Untouchables'
By Christopher Miller
The arrest of a senior tax official and ally of the Ukrainian president has been hailed -- including by the president -- as a sign of good things to come in Ukraine's crucial battle against rampant corruption. Read More
Church denies Duma deputy's claim of weeping tsar in Crimea:
By RFE/RL
Russian Orthodox Church officials in the Kremlin-annexed Crimea region have refuted a controversial claim by State Duma Deputy Natalya Poklonskaya that a bust of Tsar Nicholas II in Simferopol wept tears on the centennial of his abdication of power.
The Eparchy in Crimea said on March 7 that a special commission checked Poklonskaya's claims on March 6 and found no traces of tears either on the bust or on icons in a chapel next to the bust.
The Eparchy said that the cleric at the chapel "should be instructed to watch the bust and report if tears appear on the bust."
Poklonskaya made the claim on March 3 in a televised program, saying that she had been informed of the "miracle" by colleagues in Crimea, where she briefly served as the Moscow-imposed prosecutor after Russia seized and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
Nicholas was executed along with his entire family in 1918 by the Bolsheviks, who by then had seized power.
Moscow has been talking about the case Kyiv has brought against it at The Hague:
Russia Tells UN Court It Has No Jurisdiction In Ukraine Case
Russia says the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has no jurisdiction to issue an order Ukraine seeks to halt Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
The matter is "clearly outside the court’s competence," Russian Foreign Ministry Legal Department Director Roman Kolodkin told the court on March 7, a day after lawyers for Ukraine accused Russia of making it "impossible for Ukrainian citizens to feel safe anywhere in their country."
Judges at the ICJ, the United Nations highest judicial body, hear disputes between states. Cases can take years to pass through the court and although its rulings are final and binding, it has no means of enforcing decisions.
Moscow seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and has supported separatists in eastern Ukraine in fighting that has since killed more than 9,750 people.
Kyiv has accused Russia of violating UN conventions against terrorism and discrimination by supporting groups in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
It also accuses Russia of mistreating Crimea's Tatar and ethnic Ukrainian populations since it seized control of the peninsula.
No Substantiations
The Kremlin has denied sending troops or military equipment to eastern Ukraine despite what Kyiv and Western countries say is incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.
The United States and other Western powers have placed economic sanctions on Moscow because of its interference in Ukraine.
Kolodkin said on March 7 that allegations Russia participated in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine are groundless.
"The Russian Federation complies fully with its obligations under [the] treaties that are now relied upon by Ukraine,” he also told the court.
"Ukraine has not provided substantiations for its position that there are circumstances falling under the convention" on eliminating discrimination, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The first round of hearings is expected run until March 9 and will largely consist of procedural matters.
Georgia brought a similar case against Russia, but the court ruled in 2011 that it had no jurisdiction to rule on the matter.