„Two Russia’s Constitutional Court judges have been forced to retire because of their criticism towards the existing judicial system in Russia, according to LETA/AFP information of December 2.

Judge Vladimir Yaroslavtsev has left his position of representative of Constitutional Court in Judges’ Council, and judge Anatoly Kononov has retired, too.

According to information at the disposal of “Kommersant”, pressure to both judges was intensified after their critical comments on Russia’s judicial system, to their opinion, lacking independence. Some analysts maintain that Russian judges often make decisions in the favour of state officials, especially in politically important cases.

V.Yaroslavtsev’s interview to the Spanish newspaper “El Pais” caused rage on the part of his colleagues, “Kommersant” informs, citing anonymous judges. Security agencies can do everything they wish, and the courts just adopt their decisions, the judge stated to the Spanish publication.

In October, the Constitutional Court decided that the judge had violated the ethic code, and advised him to retire from his position in the Judges’ Council, considered by many as the consequence of his expressions publicized by the foreign newspaper. In his turn, A.Kononov, in his interview to the Russian newspaper “Sobesednik”, criticized the Courts attitude towards V.Yaroslavtsev.”

The issue of the Russia’s judicial system’s close connection with state authorities has repeatedly caused concern on the part of the Western democracies. The Russia’s judicial system’s dependence on the central power structures was obvious even during the Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and the other Kremlin oppositionist proceedings. In a similar manner, the courts make decisions on the cases previously resolved on political level, simply accepting the already publicized opinion. So far only lower courts’ judges have been forced to retire, but the abovementioned occasion when the higher court’s judges were compelled to leave their positions under political pressure, has no precedents even in Russia.  That may be considered as a warning signal regarding the situation of democracy in the already dubious Russia’s democratic system. This blow has been practically fatal for independence of the Supreme Court and its status of representative of autonomy of Russia’s judicial system and its real sovereignty. Furthermore, now it is obvious that one cannot expect a fair and politically unmotivated decision in Russia even in its higher court.