Russian Constitutional Court verdict on ECHR judgment regarding Yukos creates platform for civilized resolution of conflicts - Zorkin
ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Constitutional Court verdict regarding the enforcement of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment on the claim filed by former shareholders of the Yukos oil company does not aim at confrontation with Strasbourg, but creates a platform for the prospective resolution of the disputable issue, Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin said.
"When we said that in certain cases situations were possible in which the country may not take efforts towards the fulfillment of certain provisions of European Court resolutions, it was not a question of confrontation, but of a civilized judicial platform for the resolution of arising disputes," Zorkin said at an international conference in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
"Indeed, it is not a fact that the Constitutional Court will say in any case, being totally unbiased, that yes, let us not enforce [a decision of the Strasbourg court]," he said. "It is a platform to resolve the dispute as to whether it should be enforced or not if the Russian authorities are applying the Constitutional Court to this end but there are grounds for how to resolve this dispute," Zorkin said.
"Obviously, efforts towards the enforcement cannot be taken whenever the constitution interpreted by the Constitutional Court protects human rights better than is implied by the Strasbourg judgment," he said.
In turn, Russian Supreme Court Deputy Chairperson Tatiana Petrova pointed out that the Supreme Court had called the attention of the judiciary "to the fact that Russian laws might provide a higher level of protection of human rights and freedom compared to the standards guaranteed by the Convention (the European Convention on Human Rights).
"In such cases, courts being guided by Article 53 of the Convention shall apply the provision of Russian laws," Petrova said.
