The court approached the meeting – Newspaper Kommersant No. 28 (7473) of 02/15/2023

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin took part in the annual meeting of judges dedicated to the results of work over the past year. The head of state invited the judges to think about what they could do for business, asked them to take special control over the electoral rights of citizens and demanded that they be most attentive to protecting the rights of mobilized people and their families. At the same time, the president departed from the scenario traditional for such meetings and decided to talk with each of the deputy chairmen of the Supreme Court, who head the judicial collegiums. Judging by the reaction, not all high-ranking judges were ready for such a maneuver.

Opening the video conference meeting, Vladimir Putin recalled that he had only recently spoken to the judges — they had met at the end of November last year at the 10th All-Russian Congress of Judges. Nevertheless, he again wanted to tell them many things. And first of all, about the need for social support for military personnel participating in a special military operation, mobilized citizens and their families: the relevant laws have already been adopted, the president recalled. But consideration of such issues “should be carried out in the most thorough manner, taking into account not only all legal aspects, but also specific life circumstances and situations,” Mr. Putin insisted.

He also recalled that the judiciary should influence the formation of a favorable business and investment climate. In the context of the “sanctions aggression” against Russia, this is especially relevant, the head of state emphasized: “In this regard, the question of legislative guarantees for the protection of entrepreneurs from unjustified criminal prosecution, including a ban on extending the period of detention of suspects and accused of crimes in the economic sphere, as well as choosing preventive measures for them that are not related to isolation from society, such as posting bail or house arrest.” This will contribute to the further humanization of justice, Vladimir Putin is sure. He also admitted that after exit of Russia out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights has not escaped doubts about the ability of the domestic judicial system to provide an adequate level of protection of the rights of citizens.

But he managed to overcome them and now came to an optimistic conclusion: “Ultimately, in my opinion, our judicial system, using national judicial mechanisms, is able to reliably protect them.”

Last year, the courts administered justice with good quality and mostly within a reasonable time, Vyacheslav Lebedev, Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, who took the floor after the president, assured the audience. At first instance alone, the courts considered more than 40 million cases, 1 million more than in 2021. Of these, more than half – 25.7 million – are civil disputes, of which slightly less than half (44%) are claims for the recovery of debt on loans. Of the 10.5 million disputes in the field of housing legal relations, 97% are cases on the collection of utility bills.

In cases of contesting normative legal acts, 70% of the claims of citizens and entrepreneurs and 39% of claims to challenge the decisions of authorities and officials were satisfied, the chairman of the Supreme Court boasted. With regard to commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs, the courts dismissed 17% of cases of administrative offenses, and 18% of persons were given the most lenient administrative punishment in the form of a warning, which helped to reduce the excessive burden on business. A measure of restraint in the form of detention was chosen by the courts in relation to 87 thousand people – and this is 951 arrests less than in 2021. The number of those whose detention period was extended decreased by 1013 people.

2.3 thousand people, or 16% of those brought before the court, were sentenced to real imprisonment.

As for entrepreneurs, the courts considered 5.8 thousand cases of this category in relation to 6.6 thousand persons, continued Mr. Lebedev. 73% were convicted (of which only 6% were sentenced to imprisonment), and in respect of 27% the criminal prosecution was terminated by the court. At the same time, the courts satisfied eight out of ten petitions for the arrest of entrepreneurs, he added.

Vladimir Putin, however, was not satisfied with dry figures from the detailed report of the head of the Armed Forces. And, going beyond the traditional format for such meetings, he began to ask questions to the meeting participants.

First, the President recalled devastating earthquake in Turkey and large claims to local construction organizations for the quality of housing being built. And he asked the chairman of the collegium of the Supreme Court for civil cases, Yuri Glazov, how Russian courts consider such cases. He was clearly puzzled, but remembered a fresh review of judicial practice in cases of unauthorized construction. “And we picked up good examples just on the topic where you can demolish and where you can’t,” the judge reported happily. “We actively identified a topic where there is no need to demolish, but for the most part, of course, we demolish …” already built houses, and in violation of building codes, just in case, Mr. Putin clarified, asking to pay special attention to earthquake-prone areas. “We have such examples in Moscow and the North Caucasus, but most of all in the Krasnodar Territory,” Mr. Glazov found himself.

But the president has already switched to criminal justice and Vladimir Davydov, chairman of the board of the Armed Forces for criminal cases. “The Supreme Court is consistently pursuing a policy aimed at humanizing law enforcement in general and in relation to entrepreneurs,” Mr. Davydov reported. “I beg you to pay special attention to this and see what can be done additionally in this area,” the president instructed. The answer to the unfriendly actions of foreign countries and their attempts to destroy the Russian economy “can be only one thing – the expansion of the sphere of freedom and security on the part of law enforcement agencies in general and the judiciary in particular,” the head of state explained.

Vladimir Putin asked Tatyana Petrova, Head of the Board of the Armed Forces for Administrative Affairs, to take the electoral rights of citizens under special control.

“We are now preparing a draft resolution on the protection of electoral rights,” the judge readily responded. From the head of the Board of the Supreme Court for Economic Disputes Irina Podnosova and the chairman of the court for intellectual rights Lyudmila Novoselova in the Kremlin, as it turned out, they are waiting for proposals on reforming bankruptcy laws and norms on intellectual rights. And only the chairman of the judicial board for military affairs, Vladimir Khomchik, ventured to assure the supreme commander-in-chief that there were no problems in his area of ​​​​responsibility: military courts satisfy more than 60% of incoming complaints, mainly issues related to housing and military service.

And only after this life-affirming statement did the president say goodbye to the judges, reminding them that the morale of the entire society depends on the work of the judiciary.

Anastasia Kornya