MOSCOW (AFP)--President Dmitry Medvedev hailed progress in the Russian legal system Tuesday but said judges should be more independent and their decisions must be better enforced to bolster public trust.
Speaking in an address to Russian judges, Medvedev said Russians still did not have much trust in the domestic courts and many went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to seek justice.
"Speaking of the state of the judicial system, basically its fundamental problems have been solved in principle," Medvedev said.
However, underpaid judges often acted under pressure and could not deliver fair decisions, he said.
"The independence of a court is the key to success of its work and no pressure on the court is permissible," said Medvedev, a lawyer by training.
He added: "Unfortunately, according to statistics, every other court ruling of general and arbitration courts is not enforced."
Medvedev made judicial reforms a key plank of his campaign platform and repeatedly spoke of the need to fight "legal nihilism" in the Russian judicial system, which has a reputation for corruption and bureaucracy.
"We know that the degree of such trust (in courts) is not high today according to expert estimates," he told the judges who packed a Soviet-era hall in the House of Unions. "Such a problem shouldn't exist in principle."
Russia's top judges supported Medvedev, saying court proceedings should become more open and courts faced the task of winning back respect of ordinary Russians.
Valery Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court, said the number of Russians turning to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was on the rise at a time when the country's own courts were "fully capable" of handling them.
"Basically, the judicial sovereignty of the Russian Federation is being violated," he said.
Medvedev, responding to Zorkin's comments, said the country's courts should become so "effective" so as to bring down to a minimum the number of applications to Strasbourg.
Russia accounted for more than a quarter of the Strasbourg-based court's workload last year. In 2007, some 26% of its cases were directed against the country and 192 judgments - the second highest after Turkey - concerned it.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2008 09:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

Publié le 02 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones