Robert Amsterdam

Late on Monday the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky suffered a rupture of the abdominal membrane causing death. How many more dead Russians will it take before the world takes notice?

Why, with so much going for him and his country, should the president of Brazil make such controversial choices in his friends? The logic of the relationship with Iran is perplexing.

The decision of Venezuelan authorities to send a 22-year-old university student to prison for trumped-up crimes has caused widespread public outrage, especially among students.

Nearly all analyses of important international relationships, whether internal or external, see the countries' systems through a prism that hides the power of clans and cabals.

It's a crime against reality for us to carry on pretending that countries like Kazakhstan can hold fair trials.

I fear that we might just see exactly how many barrels of oil a given dictator needs to export in order to flaunt the law.

Brian A. Nelson's new book The Silence and the Scorpion is a must read for anyone seeking to get an unbiased and comprehensive account of the two most controversial days of the Chávez presidency.

By creating manageable confrontations with Europe, the U.S, and former Soviet states, the Kremlin is attempting to govern outwardly, diminishing pressures for greater domestic accountability.

The grotesque level of corruption in both Russia and Venezuela should stimulate the discussion as to whether their predatory natures constitute not only an international crime, but also a breach of fundamental human rights.

The fact that Chávez has taken over the courts means that Venezuela may look like a democracy to fawning movie stars and celebrity athletes of the vanguard left, but the core is rotten and lawless.

What can be said about a kleptocratic country with no rule of law, where women are shot dead, young promising lawyers slain and the rest cowed into submission by fear?

Washington showed up, laid its cards on the table, and treated Russia very seriously. Now the ball is in Kremlin's court to do the same.

Obama's approach to both Iran and Venezuela takes a sledgehammer to their anti-American narratives, appealing directly to the people.