The RF Supreme Court wishes to itself consider claims against Russia

On Monday, July 16, it became known that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (RF) is drafting a bill that assumes to vest it with the powers to consider the applications of Russian citizens who bring actions against the state.

This issue was discussed by the members of the Public Chamber at the sitting of the Commission for Public Control Over Activity of Law Enforcement Bodies, Power Agencies and Reforming the Judicial-Legal System, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports with reference to Anatoly Kucherena, Chairman of the Commission.

In Mr Kucherena's opinion, the European Court can only compensate a citizen's moral damage, but it cannot rehabilitate him or her.

Answering the question on the danger of procrastination with the cases and their deliberate non-admission by Strasbourg, the Chairman of the Commission said: "Such danger exists; therefore, we need a working group to design unified criteria."

The initiative of the Supreme Court, as well as the Constitutional Court's bill on changing the order of Russians' applications to the Strasbourg Court, was caused by the abundance of complaints of Russians against their state. According to the data presented by the "Gazeta.Ru," as of the start of 2007, the Strasbourg Court had 20,250 claims against Russia at consideration, that is, one fifth of all the applications.

Lawyer Valentin Moiseyev has stated to the "Gazeta.Ru" that in case of passage of this new law, the Russian authorities will demand from their citizens to lodge mandatory applications to the Supreme Court: "And only after consideration of the case by the Supreme Court (which can last for 4 and even for 10 years), it will be possible to apply to the European Court."