President Dmitry Medvedev has brought a bill to the State Duma that would see compensation paid out in cases of a violation of a citizen's right to a trial within a reasonable time, or when legal rulings are not promptly implemented.
If the bill is adopted, it will give Russia a chance to show Europe that it has found effective domestic solutions for the protection of civil rights. Complaints about failures to implement judicial decisions make up about 30 percent of all requests from Russians to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). More than 33,500 had been received by the end of last year.
In Jan. 2009, the ECHR froze all cases of such claims and gave Russia six months to solve the problem of non-implementation of court decisions. In November, Russia received another six months’ grace, but that too will expire. The bill initiated by the president is therefore being brought into force in record time, with a May 4 date set.