The only candidate for the post of Chairman of the Supreme Court was Irina Podnosova

On Friday, the High Qualification Board of Judges (HQJC) announced that on April 1 it will consider the application of the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court (SC), Chairman of the Collegium for Economic Disputes, Irina Podnosova, to recommend her as a candidate for the position of Chairman of the Supreme Court. Judge Podnosova turned out to be the only contender for the position that became vacant after the death of Vyacheslav Lebedev, who headed the Supreme Court for the past 34 years. Kommersant’s interlocutors claim that they began preparing a successor to Mr. Lebedev several years ago.

The deadline for submitting applications for participation in the competition for the position of Chairman of the Supreme Court expired on March 22, but, according to a Kommersant source in the judicial community, Ms. Podnosova submitted documents almost immediately after the vacancy was announced, so there was enough time to check them.

Let us remind you that according to the law, the chairman of the Supreme Council is appointed by the Federation Council on the proposal of the president. However, before this, the candidate for the position must receive a recommendation from the Higher Qualification Committee, which conducts the competitive selection. The applicant is required to have a higher legal education and at least ten years of experience in the field of jurisprudence, no criminal record and citizenship of another state; he also cannot be younger than 35 years old. If the candidate does not work as a judge, he must also pass a qualifying exam (those who have an academic degree in the field of legal sciences are exempt from this).

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the Supreme Court says that Irina Podnosova has been a contender for this position since her appointment as chairman of the panel for economic disputes of the Supreme Court. After all, she is a criminologist by profession, and in her new position she was supposed to get acquainted with other aspects of the judicial system (the Economic Collegium became the successor to the Supreme Arbitration Court, abolished in 2014). The judicial system is extremely conservative and there can be no political appointments here; a person who is not a judge cannot be appointed head here, Kommersant’s interlocutor is convinced, so a successor to Vyacheslav Lebedev was prepared in advance.

Irina Podnosova is a former classmate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just like him, she graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg State University) in 1975. In 1990–2013, Ms. Podnosova worked in the Luga City Court of the Leningrad Region, first as a judge and then as chairman of the court. In 2013, she was appointed deputy chairman of the Leningrad Regional Court, in 2017 – its chairman, and in 2018 she became the head of the newly created Second Court of Appeal. And already in 2020, she replaced Oleg Sviridenko as chairman of the board for economic disputes, who resigned after the presidential commission did not give him a recommendation for a new six-year term.

A source in the judicial community does not exclude that one of the main tasks of the new chairman will be the relocation of the Supreme Court to St. Petersburg. The construction of the judicial quarter in St. Petersburg was planned, but was repeatedly postponed, most recently to 2028. However, right now, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the Supreme Court, this issue is not on the agenda.

The government’s plenipotentiary representative in the Supreme and Constitutional Court, Mikhail Barshchevsky, told Kommersant that he had not personally encountered Irina Podnosova, but those who succeeded spoke very highly of her.

Managing Partner of Bartolius Law Firm, Yuliy Tai, says that this personnel decision was quite expected, even from the moment Irina Podnosova was appointed to the position of deputy chairman of the Armed Forces, despite a large number of speculations on this topic. Both security officials and members of parliament were named as possible successors to Vyacheslav Lebedev, notes Mr. Tai. In fact, such an appointment means stability and calm within the judicial system, the expert is sure. Actually, the same can be said about the work of the board for economic disputes under the leadership of Irina Podnosova. And this is already good if, in these difficult times, lawyers and the system itself are not subject to stress, notes Yuliy Tai. As for the possible intensification of the process of moving the Armed Forces to St. Petersburg in connection with the arrival of a new chairman, he does not see any connection here. In the end, federal law has already determined St. Petersburg as the permanent residence of the Armed Forces, he recalls.

Anastasia Kornya