Posts tagged ‘Russia’
Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun
Most systems of property law, like exorcists, attach special importance to possession. Once someone is in possession of a given piece of property, it is usually a demanding process to have them removed by force of law (pro tip: try holy water). The same has historically been true in matters of international territorial sovereignty. More often than not, the country which simply takes possession of territory will win out over others which may have more legitimate claims. Yet how can a state “take possession” of land which is uninhabitable? It doesn’t take a Neil Armstrong to tell you that the answer is by planting flags.
For some reason Canada seems unwilling to practise flag-planting as much as other countries. Today we have the excuse that most of our flags are hanging over Olympic podiums. But this wasn’t always the case, and our nervousness about throwing flags around is putting our claims of Arctic sovereignty at risk. These claims are important, and could translate into tall cash, since shrinking ice coverage and advancing technology will make it more practical to extract resources such as oil and natural gas from the Arctic seabed in the future.
Don’t let the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) fool you into thinking that flag-planting isn’t a legal basis for an Arctic claim. According to Part VI of the UNCLOS, states…
A Direct Route to Russian Social Insurance Contributions
The economic crisis has hit Russia hard and left the government scrambling for ways to fill its budget. Efforts to revive the Russian economy have taken a significant chunk out of the Stability Fund, Russia’s emergency funds for economic stability largely accrued from natural resource profits. This vast amount of government spending has left the Russians eager to do a bit of spring cleaning and tighten up budget income sources. This has led to a series of tax developments and increased tax enforcement.
One such effort has been the transformation of taxation for social benefits with the coming into force on January 1st, 2010 of federal law N 212-FZ “On Insurance Contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, Social Security Fund of the Russian Federation, Federal Medical Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation and Territorial Medical Insurance Funds.” Before 2010, there was a single tax for social benefits called “Edinnii Sotzialnii Nalog” (Unified Social Tax), which was collected by the federal tax revenue agency on behalf of the government. Russia has now opted for a more targeted approach to this tax. Instead of a single tax, the new legislation introduces employer payments to four separate funds: pension fund, social security fund, federal medical insurance fund and territorial medical insurance fund.
As a way of transitioning from a single tax to a series of contributions, the Russian government has…
