New Russian president Dmitri Medvedev ordered a cleanup of the country’s courts on May 20, one day after he announced he would fight ‘systemic corruption’ in Russia.
Medvedev said that courts free of influence would be the major thrust of his new strategy to fight corruption, at a meeting with senior judicial officials in Moscow Tuesday.
“(Unjust) decisions, as we all know, do happen and come as a result of different kinds of pressure, like telephone calls and — there's no point in denying — offers of money,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev also recommended a cut in the red tape that hampers the Russian judicial system, and deplored the poor qualifications of many judges – a result, he said, of the increase in the number of universities and other institutions that give law degrees and training. He said judicial problems would be addressed with laws regulating judges’ work and amending the Administrative Offenses Code. Interax reported that Medvedev will name a working group to prepare the changes in a matter of days.
On Monday, Medvedev ordered a senior aide to set up an anti-corruption council to modernize laws, create disincentives for corruption and educate Russians of its effects. The 10,500 criminal corruption cases registered last year, he said, were “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Corruption and bribery are rampant in Russia. The country recently received a dismal rating of 143rd of 180 countries from Transparency International – on par with Gambia and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kremlin critics say the government itself has been one of the main forces manipulating the courts under former Russian president Vladimir Putin. The article cited the case of last week’s testimony by a senior judge on Russia’s top civil court, who said that a top Kremlin official had threatened her job if she didn’t rule as instructed, and noted that internationally, the court case that bankrupted Yukos was widely viewed as politically motivated.
Medvedev orders court cleanup
Published: 03 June 2008
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