After seeing courts dismiss his lawsuit against the military, a retired soldier is suing Chechen rebels for disabling injuries he suffered when his unit was trapped in a three-week battle while patrolling Grozny.
Gennady Uminsky, the retired warrant officer, said that he believes fighters loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev trapped his unit in the building, and so he filed suit against the rebel Chechen government in an Oryol district court Thursday.
"I know Basayev will laugh when he learns about this, and I will laugh with him over this idiocy," Uminsky, 38, said by telephone from his hometown of Oryol. "But what else can I do if the Russian government and the Russian courts have put this absurdity on me?"
Cases similar to Uminsky's are plentiful, but only a few draw public attention.
Only 50 of the 200 troops in Uminsky's unit survived the three-week siege in August 1996. Chechen rebels trapped the soldiers in a destroyed apartment building and repeatedly called on them to surrender. The standoff only ended when Chechen separatists and the Kremlin signed a truce Aug. 26 that effectively granted Chechnya de facto independence.
Uminsky was hospitalized in shellshock and with grenade shrapnel in both legs, and he spent a year recovering in various hospitals.
His trouble with the military started in early 1997, when he received a letter from the Defense Ministry saying he had been discharged for being absent from service for more than a month. Upon returning to Oryol, he learned that officials in the local military enlistment office could not find his discharge papers, meaning he could not claim insurance or other military benefits. All he was entitled to was a monthly state pension of 3,000 rubles ($107) reserved for people whose health prevent them from working full-time.
Uminsky first filed suit against the Defense Ministry in 2002. After two years of deliberation, the Oryol district court ruled that the ministry should compensate him with a lump sum of almost 1 million rubles ($34,000) and a monthly pension of $900.
Prosecutors appealed, and the Oryol regional court reversed the ruling in August, saying it was impossible to determine who exactly was responsible for Uminsky's disabilities and that the government was, therefore, not obliged to compensate him. In its decision, the court cited a provision in the Civil Code that states liability for damages lie with those who inflicted them.
"I see what the judges refuse to see: It was the Russian government that allowed [Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev] to violate the [Russian] Constitution in Chechnya, it was the government that began the war in Chechnya, and it was the government that sent me to war," Uminsky said. "And now they tell me to go and collect from the Chechens who threw grenades at me."
There is at least one instance of a Chechen rebel being ordered to pay compensation to federal servicemen. The Rostov-on-Don court found Doku Dzhantemirov guilty of shooting down a military helicopter, killing 127 servicemen on board, near Grozny in August 2002. It sentenced him to life in prison and ordered him to pay about $2 million in damages to the servicemen's families.
Inadequate laws allow judges to dismiss damage claims by servicemen, said Lyudmila Golikova, a legal expert for the Mother's Rights Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that defends the rights of families of killed servicemen. "There are no exact answers in Russian law for who is responsible for what, and judges consider the legal grounds of these claimants to be weak," she said.
Golikova said judges routinely counter plaintiffs' arguments -- which tend to be based on the constitutionally guaranteed right to life, health and family care -- by referring to a provision in the law on military service that implies that service comes with a risk to life and health.
"This opportunity for different interpretations undermines many efforts to recover damages from the state," Golikova said. "It looks like Russian lawmakers are intentionally refusing to create a legal foundation that would enable plaintiffs and defendants to take firm and clear positions in court."
Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of State Duma's Legislation Committee, described the verdict against Uminsky as "incompetent" and "strange."
"Uminsky has the full legal right to material compensation for damages inflicted in combat, and it should be paid by the state through the Finance Ministry," Krasheninnikov said last week, Interfax reported.
The ministry, not Uminsky, must demand that Basayev pay compensation if he is caught, Krasheninnikov said, suggesting that Uminsky take his case to the Supreme Court.
Uminsky, however, has little faith in the courts, saying he understands that a ruling in his favor would be a very undesirable precedent for the government.
"There are thousands of people left like me after the conflict in Chechnya," he said. "If we add those injured in terrorist attacks and in Afghanistan, we may ruin the government."
The government had failed to pay out more than 10 billion rubles ($350 million) in compensation to servicemen as of Jan. 1 last year, RIA-Novosti reported in May, citing the Audit Chamber. Of that amount, the military has not paid 800 million rubles ($27 million) as ordered in 9,300 court rulings over three years, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said last summer, Gazeta reported.
The Defense Ministry declined to comment on Uminsky's case Friday.
Gennady Uminsky, the retired warrant officer, said that he believes fighters loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev trapped his unit in the building, and so he filed suit against the rebel Chechen government in an Oryol district court Thursday.
"I know Basayev will laugh when he learns about this, and I will laugh with him over this idiocy," Uminsky, 38, said by telephone from his hometown of Oryol. "But what else can I do if the Russian government and the Russian courts have put this absurdity on me?"
Cases similar to Uminsky's are plentiful, but only a few draw public attention.
Only 50 of the 200 troops in Uminsky's unit survived the three-week siege in August 1996. Chechen rebels trapped the soldiers in a destroyed apartment building and repeatedly called on them to surrender. The standoff only ended when Chechen separatists and the Kremlin signed a truce Aug. 26 that effectively granted Chechnya de facto independence.
Uminsky was hospitalized in shellshock and with grenade shrapnel in both legs, and he spent a year recovering in various hospitals.
His trouble with the military started in early 1997, when he received a letter from the Defense Ministry saying he had been discharged for being absent from service for more than a month. Upon returning to Oryol, he learned that officials in the local military enlistment office could not find his discharge papers, meaning he could not claim insurance or other military benefits. All he was entitled to was a monthly state pension of 3,000 rubles ($107) reserved for people whose health prevent them from working full-time.
Uminsky first filed suit against the Defense Ministry in 2002. After two years of deliberation, the Oryol district court ruled that the ministry should compensate him with a lump sum of almost 1 million rubles ($34,000) and a monthly pension of $900.
Prosecutors appealed, and the Oryol regional court reversed the ruling in August, saying it was impossible to determine who exactly was responsible for Uminsky's disabilities and that the government was, therefore, not obliged to compensate him. In its decision, the court cited a provision in the Civil Code that states liability for damages lie with those who inflicted them.
"I see what the judges refuse to see: It was the Russian government that allowed [Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev] to violate the [Russian] Constitution in Chechnya, it was the government that began the war in Chechnya, and it was the government that sent me to war," Uminsky said. "And now they tell me to go and collect from the Chechens who threw grenades at me."
There is at least one instance of a Chechen rebel being ordered to pay compensation to federal servicemen. The Rostov-on-Don court found Doku Dzhantemirov guilty of shooting down a military helicopter, killing 127 servicemen on board, near Grozny in August 2002. It sentenced him to life in prison and ordered him to pay about $2 million in damages to the servicemen's families.
Inadequate laws allow judges to dismiss damage claims by servicemen, said Lyudmila Golikova, a legal expert for the Mother's Rights Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that defends the rights of families of killed servicemen. "There are no exact answers in Russian law for who is responsible for what, and judges consider the legal grounds of these claimants to be weak," she said.
Golikova said judges routinely counter plaintiffs' arguments -- which tend to be based on the constitutionally guaranteed right to life, health and family care -- by referring to a provision in the law on military service that implies that service comes with a risk to life and health.
"This opportunity for different interpretations undermines many efforts to recover damages from the state," Golikova said. "It looks like Russian lawmakers are intentionally refusing to create a legal foundation that would enable plaintiffs and defendants to take firm and clear positions in court."
Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of State Duma's Legislation Committee, described the verdict against Uminsky as "incompetent" and "strange."
"Uminsky has the full legal right to material compensation for damages inflicted in combat, and it should be paid by the state through the Finance Ministry," Krasheninnikov said last week, Interfax reported.
The ministry, not Uminsky, must demand that Basayev pay compensation if he is caught, Krasheninnikov said, suggesting that Uminsky take his case to the Supreme Court.
Uminsky, however, has little faith in the courts, saying he understands that a ruling in his favor would be a very undesirable precedent for the government.
"There are thousands of people left like me after the conflict in Chechnya," he said. "If we add those injured in terrorist attacks and in Afghanistan, we may ruin the government."
The government had failed to pay out more than 10 billion rubles ($350 million) in compensation to servicemen as of Jan. 1 last year, RIA-Novosti reported in May, citing the Audit Chamber. Of that amount, the military has not paid 800 million rubles ($27 million) as ordered in 9,300 court rulings over three years, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said last summer, Gazeta reported.
The Defense Ministry declined to comment on Uminsky's case Friday.