This issue is the 9th one for 2024 and the 31st since the beginning of the war in Ukraine..... Mixed messages were sent from France in 2024 – on the one hand the French president sells Rafale fighter planes to Serbia, a candidate for EU membership but an ally of Russia; on the other hand France arrests Pavel Durov, a Russian oligarch exiled in Dubai, founder and owner of the Telegram platform, the most used in Russian defense circles. A democracy is characterized by respect for the rule of law, a dictatorship by arbitrary and expeditious justice. We will discuss the state of justice in dictatorships, and its evolution in democracies with the abolition of the death penalty. We will then recall the assassination in an Arctic prison colony of Alexei Navalny, first opponent to Vladimir Putin. In a third point we will see that Ukraine is trying to enforce the rule of law in times of war, a challenge. When France is celebrating 80 years of its liberation (Normandy, Paris, Provence...) we will recall the resistance and execution of Missak Manouchian and his 22 FTP-MOI comrades on February 21, 1944 at Mont Valérien; all entered the Pantheon on February 21, 2024. The 1944 European resistance against the nazi regime struggle echoes that of the Ukrainians in 2024 against Russia.
1- Rule of law and democratic justice
2- Murdering State in Russia
3- Fair justice in Ukraine
4- In memoriam- Mont Valérien