Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

A report prepared by the Center of Political Technologies has said that the Russian courts' primary problem is not corruption, but a dependence on the executive branch.

The report, entitled "Russia's Judicial System: Its Condition and Problems", was drafted at the order of the Institute for Modern Development, whose board of trustees is headed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

It found that in the most significant cases, Russian courts protect the interests of officials - not those whose side the law is on. The main problem of the federal system of justice is therefore the courts' high degree of dependence on officials.

Following Mikhail Khodorkovsky's article in Kommersant Vlast on Russia's judiciary, several legal experts in Russia also weighed in on the important issue:

Vladimir Yaroslavtsev, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation:

"The strengthening of authoritarianism leads to a situation where judges become ever more dependent."

"The court system is not an insulated element of society. In Russia, civil society either does not exist, or is found in an embryonic state. The legislative bodies are paralyzed, and the key role in running the state is played by the vertical of power, while the centre for the adoption of decisions is found in the Administration of the President."

"Under Vladimir Putin and his successor at the post of president Dmitry Medvedev, judicial power in Russia has become a tool of the executive power."

"...the security agencies can do what they want, and all that remains for the courts is to confirm their decisions. The security agencies - this is who rules, and this is a return to the Soviet era. This is cause for concern. Everybody has already forgotten about the Stalinist purges and the years of the '30s."

"I feel that I find myself on the ruins of justice."

Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation:

"It would seem that if somebody is saying that to ensure the social effectiveness of our society we need to attain the independence of the courts, then he should first and foremost be thanked for the desire to implement a certain unconditional good. (Is there anyone who could argue with the notion that independence of the courts is needed, - besides some kind of completely hidebound reactionary and retrograde!) But, having thanked such a possessor of a "super-valuable" and "super-original" idea, we next need to ask him: how to you want to ensure the independence of the courts? On what forces in today's Russian society to you wish to rely for this? What professional and social asset to employ? How are you going to counteract those who want not independence of the courts, but the opposite?"

Vladimir Tumanov, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the years 1995-1997:

"Khodorkovsky correctly noted the problem of an independent judiciary, but it is complex to resolve it by way of reforming. What is necessary is a complete turnaround in the attitude of the executive apparat towards the judiciary. To elevate the independence of judges only from within can not be done. All over the world, there exist administrative courts, which control the actions of the powers. We attempted to put through a law on the creation of such courts in Russia, but the officials put the brakes on this project."

Tamara Morshchakova, Deputy Chairwoman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (ret.), advisor to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation:

"What is needed right here, probably, is to bring attention to one simple thing: we have become accustomed to the idea that a bribe - this is money. But a prosecutor, excuse me, does not give a judge a bribe, but shows him a mighty fist; really, this is the fist of the state: "If you do not as you should, not as we are all doing, it will be bad for you". And this is pure corruption. And this, in connection with the question about the independence of the judiciary, is a very big question. Corruption is not people moving money from their pocket into a judge's; corruption is a judge not adopting an independent decision."

"And if we recall the history of our reform, already the present-day, Russian one of the 1990s, then, taking the first decade of this reform, up to the year 2001 - it had begun in 1991 - we must honestly say that we had advanced greatly then specifically in the legal consciousness of judges. Judges felt themselves independent. And then, when this independence was destroyed the first time, this was the introduction of the original 3-year term for the appointment of a judge to a post for the first time. And then all judges (I remember this, the judges' corps discussed [it]) said: if they adopt this, independence can be considered done away with."

"Now there are other levers. And they were created already after 2001. For example the appointment of a chairman of a court for 6 years with the possibility of reappointment for another 6 puts him in a position where he has to be earning this second appointment all the time. And how can you earn? Only by transmitting the will of the power downwards to [lower-level] judges."

"One cannot but agree with the notion that the judicial irremovability proclaimed in the Constitution needs to finally be made a reality. To use an apt expression, it remains for us a constitutional fiction, because the grounds for the removal of a judge from a post are very broad and for anyone at all to "be departed."

Sergey Pashin, expert of the Independent Expert-Legal Council, merited jurist of Russia, federal judge (ret.):

"Today's council of judges - this is flesh of the flesh of the bureaucratic judicial system, this is a committee for serving the interests of the hierarchs of this judicial system. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no point in counting on the council of judges of the Russian Federation to behave itself independently, autonomously and in the interests of justice."

"The judicial reform - and in 1991 I was one of the authors of its conception - was successfully begun by Yeltsin, but under Putin it was in fact shut down. The dependence of the judiciary on the administration of the president only solidified."

Yevgeny Semenyako, President of the Federal chamber of lawyers of the Russian Federation:

"One wants to note right from the start that one can hardly consider Mikhail Khodorkovsky's assertion that the Russian judicial system has not become an independent branch of power a revelation, inasmuch as it is experiencing obvious influence on the part, let's put it this way, of other branches, first and foremost the executive power."

"Whether the judicial power becomes really and truly independent depends - as that same historical experience bears witness about this - on a multitude of socio-political, social and even social-psychological factors. They are known, and no discoveries are required here: real separation of powers, unconditional adherence to the principle of the supremacy of the law, respect for the rights of the individual, a corresponding level of culture and legal consciousness, an independent and highly-professional bar, political pluralism and free, responsible mass information media - this is what gives the juridical norms called upon to ensure the independence of the judicial power the opportunity to acquire real life."

"It is clear that with such an approach, the appearance in our country of a truly independent judiciary assumes lengthy goal-oriented work by the power and society. Unfortunately, it becomes necessary to admit that active movement in this direction is not being observed for now."

"And now let us consider the following question: can today's judges' corps, the bodies of its self-administration ensure the independent, competent and fair implementation of justice in all situations, in spite, so to speak, of persons and circumstances, all by themselves? I seriously doubt it."

Olga Kudeshkina, former judge of the Moscow City Court. The European Court of Human Rights recognised the unlawfulness of her dismissal from the post of judge of the Moscow City Court.

"After the appointment to the post of chairwoman of the Moscow City Court of O. Yegorova, an egregious situation formed in the judicial system of the city.

"The chairwoman of the court, appointed to the post with gross violation of the requirements of the law, is trampling on the norms of legislation and judicial ethics, interfering in the activity of judges with respect to the implementation of justice, "recommends" to them to adopt the "correct", in her view, decisions irrespective of the degree of their lawfulness. There are all grounds to deem that such behaviour by Yegorova became possible thanks to the patronage of certain official persons from your administration. Indeed, she does not even conceal this..."
Open letter to President of the RF V.V. Putin, 11.03.2005

"Together with this, especially in recent years, practically nothing has been done for strengthening the independence of judges and the judicial power."

"About the independence of judges of the city court and the district courts of Moscow today can be spoken only having put this word in quotation marks."

"Mister President! Your public pronouncements correspond little to what is going on in real life. Despite the fact that the Constitution of the Russian Federation proclaims the principle of separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial, each of which is independent and autonomous, in practice their full-fledged separation is absent."

"It ought to be admitted that in the course of the judicial reform, the judicial power in Russia never did become an independent branch of state power. It became even more dependent on the executive power, or rather - on your administration. It is practically built into its vertical."