Page 13 - RusRPTJul19

More realistically the relations between Russia and the Council are not working very well. The recourse to the ECHR should be one of the major boons of membership for regular Russians but the Kremlin has managed to swamp the process and bog it down into ineffectiveness, argued human rights lawyer Kirill Koroteev in an op-ed in Vedomosti this week.
“In Strasbourg, many speeches were made on all concessions being made by European bureaucrats for the sake of preserving the right of Russians to apply to the ECHR. But here, too, Moscow has a rational strategy to weaken the ECHR, to turn it from a regulator of new human rights issues into an accountant that prepares lists for compensating victims of systematic violations of laws and conventions,” Koroteev argued. “Russia supplies the ECHR with standard cases of torture and the dispersal of peaceful demonstrations on an industrial scale, and the ECHR has to spend a lot of resources on handling complaints about serious and almost indisputable human rights violations.”
Koroteev goes on to say that the Council has been ineffective in dealing with other human rights abuses amongst members, highlighting Azerbaijan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s over-reaction to the coup attempt.
“If it is unable to respond promptly and adequately to the challenges of the pan-European demands for democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights, the Russian contributions can only hasten its gradual extinction. Instead of fire, smoke,” wrote Koroteev.
The ball is now in the air as the newer members of Europe withdraw to their capitals to consider their next move. The whole affair has shown how deeply divided Europe is on the Russia issue and highlights how weak the intuitions designed to promote and protect human rights are.
2.1 Watcom shopping index
There was not much change in the Watcom Shopping index over the May holidays as the index continues to underperform every year for the last six years.
The Watcom index records foot traffic in Moscow’s biggest malls in real time by using the CC cameras and gives an immediate insight into Russia consumer trends and mood.
Retailers have become more active in promoting sales and the traditional long May holiday week was extended in most malls that have been trying to pull in the punters by offering more in the way of entertainment and kid-friendly environments.
13 RUSSIA Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com