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The Chechnya conflict itself broke out yet during the existence of the USSR - in September 1991. On 11 October 1992. Dudayev announced the state of emergency as a reaction to the mobilization of Russian military forces at the borders with Chechnya. The Russian troops left their positions at the Chechen borders only on 18 November 1992. ... In one year after the outbreak of the war, Moscow's policy on Chechnya (1995) returned to the beginning the necessity. to solve the Chechen prob1em by "Chechen hands" and not by military force. It became the central topic of the election campaign before the elections to the State Duma which took place on 17 December 1995. ... From a short-term point of view, it would be possible to speak about the consequences on the presidential elections in 1996, from a broader point of view it is about the permanent presence of official violence in the Soviet-Russian history of the 20th century which forms the basis of a specific "Russian way". This factor has always influenced the contents, the orientation and the result of all processes (economic, social, spiritual, ethical etc.) that is confirmed by the political events in Russia not only in 1995 but mainly from 1985 up to today. (SOI : MO: S. 79f.)

The Lisbon revision of the primary law led to the confirmation of the pre-existing Commission's commitment to carry out 'broad consultations' while preparing European legislative acts. The aim of this article is to elucidate formulation of the Commission's public consultation practice and evaluate positions of the interest groups to the Commission's strategy. The attention is accorded to the analysis of the consultation's level of formalization and inclusivity, the two principal consultation' components. The analysis is built upon the study of the selected interest groups' positions brought forward during the years 2002-2012 and upon the reaction of the Commission to the interest groups' feedback. The available empirical data suggests that the interest groups appreciated the introduction of the minimum standards for consultation, however, they have been steadily alerting to their frequent breach and arbitrary application. Adapted from the source document.

This paper analyses the perception of the new member states of the EU (the 2004 and 2007 entrants) by the old member states' representatives. The text utilizes an updated version of image theory and it is based on 24 interviews with diplomats from permanent representations of the old member states in Brussels. It argues that the mutual perception between the EU member states has an impact on coalition building and thus also on the decision-making process of the EU. Although the newcomers are perceived positively in general terms, there are several differences between them in terms of their activities and behaviour at the EU level as well as in the cultural area. The paper therefore divides the newcomers into groups according to the image that is ascribed to them (the four general images are those of a close ally, a passive ally, a distant ally, and a detached ally). Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this paper is to examine the consequences of a failure to make a preliminary reference from the point of view of consumer organizations striving for the protection of collective consumer rights. Also, this paper argues against a strict application of the principle of procedural autonomy of Member States, as it makes the enforcement of consumer rights practically impossible, in particular with respect to Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on injunctions for the protection of consumers' interests (the Injunctions Directive). The author discusses both judicial and extrajudicial remedies that are available in case of a failure to make a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union. She believes that procedural rules and the specific conditions for obtaining damages based on the Francovich judgment are not sufficiently harmonized throughout the European Union. Adapted from the source document.

The EU crisis has brought about fundamental impacts on the constitutional framework of the EU governance. The internationalization of EU law, the strengthening of the intergovernmental form of decision making with the crucial role of the European Council and the corresponding weakening of parliamentary bodies can be seen as symptoms of a shift of the EU towards an executive form of federal governance. However, this trend may not be interpreted simply as a 'return' of the sovereign state as the key actor within the European polity, as it might be according to traditional theories of emergency powers. The decision making is de facto relocated from the political level to the level of administration. Thus, instead of de-parliamentarization, we can speak about de-politization or a reconfiguration of the political. The crucial role here - even in decisions of summits of the European Council and the Euro Council - is played by administrative bodies, particulary those of the Council Secretariat and the Commission's services. While the economic crisis is (hopefully) already overcome, the overcoming of the crisis of democracy is not in sight. Adapted from the source document.

The text analyses the conditions for the use of the roll-call votes (RCV) in the European Parliament in the context of the democratic accountability to the voters. The research is focused on examining the rules of procedure of this institution from its beginning to the present. The goal of the text is to analyse the formal setting of the rules of RCV. The procedures concerning RCV have been completely in the hands of deputies. The historical analysis therefore endeavours to reveal whether the deputies decided to act in a way that would grant the greatest possible level of transparency and thus control to their voters, or whether the step taken in 2009 is only a historical exception. In the conclusion, the authors come to the result that the MEPs did not strengthen the relations between the voters and the MEPs significantly, although in 2009 and 2014, certain changes were made in this respect. Adapted from the source document.

This study seeks to make a contribution to a limited research on the systemic level of the national coordination of European affairs, which involves both domestic institutions and a permanent representation at the EU and national embassies in the EU member states and other countries. We explore the issue through a case study which concentrates on 1) several middle-sized EU member states and 2) coordination in the field of foreign and security policy. The study argues that the coordination at the systemic level has a rather a centralized character. The elements of decentralization, which can be also identified at the systemic level, are primarily related to information-gathering as well as representation at negotiations. Permanent representations are considerably more involved in coordination than national embassies, however. Adapted from the source document.

The ambition of the paper is to analyze the major characteristics of the Chinese energy policy towards the most important producers of natural gas in Chinas neighborhood. The analytical perspectives of a strategic approach to energy security and state-centric realism are used to work with case studies of Sino-Russian and Sino-Turkmen relations from the energy security perspective. The paper concludes that Chinas energy policy towards the given producers in Russia and Turkmenistan comes significantly close to the selected analytical perspectives and that natural gas has become an important part of the strategic considerations of the Chinese political leadership. This conclusion, however, applies more to Turkmenistan and less to Russia, as in the case of the Sino-Russian relations, both parties fail to achieve a mutual complementarity, and economic thinking prevails over Beijing's strategic interests. Adapted from the source document.

A major representative of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) renewed its violent activities while ending a ceasefire that lasted for almost five years in 2004. The nature of its armed struggle is in many aspects different from that of the period of 1984-1999. The issue of the Kurdish question in Turkey has been once again becoming increasingly dynamic in the last years, and the violent manifestations connected with this issue have been increasing as well. The presented case study deals with the offensive tactics of the PKK during its armed struggle in Turkey in the period from 2004 to 2011. The activities of the PKK are framed in the concept of insurgency. The analysis is focused on a description and interpretation of the nature of the PKKs offensive operations. On the basis of the analysis of the operational level of the PKKs activities, the pursued insurgent tactics are identified. The PKK pursues and combines four kinds of typical insurgency tactics - provocation, intimidation, protraction, and exhaustion, with the first two being the most important. In the background of the PKKs campaign, we can observe that the PKK plans and times its operations very carefully. At the same time the PKK focuses on getting and maintaining popular support for itself. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion of the political economy of trade policy. We also focus on the issue of foreign agricultural trade policy in the contemporary Czech Republic. We assume that in the Czech discourse the position of economic nationalism and mercantilism is clearly dominant. We would like to demonstrate this through a content analysis of several major Czech journals. We also believe that the arguments of those who request further regulation of agricultural trade are not much different from those articulated in the discussion between the free trade stance and the mercantilist stance. Even though the prevailing arguments of classical economists are still not entirely accepted in the Czech Republic (certainly not in its economic policy), the strong mercantilist position in favor of the primary sector in the country, which has a strong comparative advantage in industrial production, is nevertheless an interesting object of research interest. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with the European integration policy of the Holy See from the 1950s until the resignation of Benedict XVI at the beginning of 2013. The goal of the study is to describe the integration policies of individual popes in the context of political science theories. In the first half of the study we will briefly introduce the major typologies of political science for the study of integration policies of political parties. From the list of the existing approaches, we choose the typology of Petr Kaniok as the most appropriate for this study. In the second half of the study, individual popes are classified according to the framework of Kaniok's typology. The goal of the study is not only to investigate the major moves in the integration policy of the Holy See, but also to utilize a theoretical approach traditionally used for the study of political parties on the issue of the Holy See. Adapted from the source document.