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Moscow Times
October 1, 2004
Bill Puts President in Charge of Judges
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer

In a move to further strengthen the Kremlin's grip, the Federation Council has drafted a bill that would blur the line between the separation of the judicial and executive branches of power by putting the judiciary system under the control of the Kremlin.

The draft, which was overwhelmingly approved by Federation Council senators on Wednesday, would allow the Kremlin to appoint half of the members of the Supreme Qualification Collegium and the Federation Council to pick the rest. The collegium is the only authority in the country that can fire judges, and it also appoints judges to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court.

The bill appears to be an attempt to legitimize something that is already happening in reality, analysts said Thursday.

"The judiciary system is now fully under the control of the executive branch, and this bill will just legalize the situation," said Andrei Pokhmelkin, a legal expert from the Moscow-based Independent Council of Legal Experts.

The Supreme Qualification Collegium consists of 29 members, 18 of whom are judges elected by secret ballot every four years by the All-Russia Congress of Judges, an association of judges. Ten members are public representatives appointed by the Federation Council, while the remaining one is appointed by the president as his representative.

The Federation Council's bill proposes cutting the members of the collegiums to 21 people. The judges on the collegium would be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Federation Council, while public representatives would be nominated by the speaker of the Federation Council and approved by the chamber. The president would keep the right to pick his own representative.

The bill, portions of which are posted on the Federation Council's web site, allows the president to fire the judges on the collegium with the collegium's consent and the Federation Council to fire the public representatives.

The bill comes about three weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced a sweeping shakeup of the country's political life by scrapping the popular vote for regional leaders in favor of a system under which he would submit candidates to regional legislatures for their approval. Putin also called for an end to individual races in State Duma elections.

He said the changes were needed to strengthen the executive chain of command -- and the country -- after the recent terrorist attacks.

Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, a co-author of the judges bill, said the change is needed to stamp out corruption in the judiciary system in order to fight terrorism.

Independent State Duma Deputy Sergei Popov said the bill was the wrong way to go. "There are two main problems -- judges are corrupt or biased -- in our judicial system. But you cannot fight against corruption by making them more biased," said Popov, a member of the Duma's Legislation Committee.

"This bill shows that those in power are suffering from some kind of paranoia. We don't have a political opposition, and the judicial system is already under the control of the executive branch -- but they are still frightened of something," Pokhmelkin said.

Sergei Nanosov, a legal expert with the independent Legal Council think tank, called the bill "a very dangerous attempt to put an end to judges' independence."

"They will be under the Kremlin's control," he said. "Since the main function of the Supreme Qualification Collegium was to fire judges, judges who refuse to fulfill certain orders might get fired because half of the collegium's members will be loyal to the Kremlin."

The bill also gives the president control of the Judges Department, a federal body responsible for the administration of the courts.

The director of the department is now appointed by the chairman of the Supreme Court, but the bill allows the president to appoint and fire the director.

The bill clearly contradicts the Lisbon convention, which Russia signed in 1998. Under the convention, half of the members of the Supreme Qualification Collegium should be judges elected by the judges themselves, Pokhmelkin said.

"There are too many things in our country that don't coincide with international standards, and this proposal is not an exception," he said.

Senators approved the bill in a 175-2 vote Wednesday. One senator abstained.

Analysts said the bill is clearly backed by Putin since its authors are close allies of the president. In addition to Mironov, the authors include Federation Council deputy speakers Alexander Torshin, Dmitry Mezentsev, Mikhail Nikolayev and Svetlana Orlova, as well as the Kremlin-connected Center for Strategic Development, which helped run Putin's election campaign in 2000.

The Duma is expected to consider the bill this fall.