A lot of what Russia is doing in Ukraine appears to be in violation of international laws. As the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said "Ukraine is a crime scene" (Barrons).
I'm wondering if it is also against Russia's domestic laws, esp the Constitution of the Russian Federation (RF or just "Russia" below).
English translation of the Constitution here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Russia
While I'm no law expert (certainly not in Russian constitutional law), a quick read brings up a few relevant areas:
Article 17 "... rights and freedoms of humans and citizens" - it appears that the constitution gives equal rights to citizens and non-citizens. Do non-citizens in occupied territories have those rights, or does this only cover the territory of Russia?
Article 20 "Everyone shall have the right to life" - seems straightforward, this would prohibit killing civilians. A very literal reading would seem to prohibit any lethal warfare entirely (in the same way as the death penalty is prohibited). How is killing of combatants allowed under this?
Article 21 "No one shall be subject to torture", 22 "Arrest, detention ... shall be allowed only by court decision", Article 25 "No one shall have the right to enter a home against the will of those living there" and so on - what has been reported from Bucha, Borodianka etc would seem to be an obvious and massive violation of all of these.
Article 26 "Everyone shall have the right to determine and indicate his nationality" - forced deportations of civilians from Ukraine to RF, and forcibly issuing them RF passports, would seem to be in violation of this. (sources: CNN MSN)
Article 15 "The universally-recognised norms of international law and international treaties and agreements of the Russian Federation shall be a component part of its legal system. If an international treaty or agreement of the Russian Federation establishes other rules than those envisaged by law, the rules of the international agreement shall be applied. " - this would imply that for example the various parts of the Geneva convention ratified by Russia are binding, and even override domestic laws.
The constitution doesn't say much about war, how and for what purposes war can be declared, and what the role and obligations of the armed forces is.
Is there anything in the constitution which would prohibit a war of aggression? (eg to capture territory)
and
Is there anything which would prohibit carrying out aggressive acts outside the territory of Russia without declaring war? (ie acts which would normally be prohibited by the constitution inside Russia)
Significance: The armed forces of the Russian Federation take an oath to uphold the constitution. It would seem that under that oath, they not only can but must disobey orders that are against the constitution. Russian troops have in many cases already avoided deployment on a number of flimsy technicalities; if literally everything about the war is unconstitutional that would open room for a lot more of the same.
