Nikolai Slivenko, Russia's representative to the European Court of Human Rights, at a press conference in Moscow.
Photo: ИТАР-ТАСС
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Putin Names New Envoy to Strasbourg Court
// Russia's Future at the European Court of Human Rights Now in the Hands of the Justice Ministry
Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced 56-year-old Pavel Laptev as Russia's representative to the European Court of Human Rights with 38-year-old Veronika Milinchuk, an official in the Russian prosecutor general's office. Mr. Putin also transferred oversight of the position from the federal legal department of the presidential administration to the Ministry of Justice. In the opinion of Kommersant's sources in Strasbourg and Moscow, these changes are tied to the European Court's upcoming review of the Yukos affair.
Rumors that Pavel Laptev would soon be pushed into retirement began to circulate last week, but it was not until yesterday that President Putin signed the order for his dismissal. In the order, the president also appointed Veronika Milinchuk to the position and directed the Justice Ministry to assume oversight of the post of envoy to the European Court. The transfer of control over the post to the Justice Ministry, which is headed by former prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov, brings Russia into line with international practice. Most European countries have delegated dealings with the Court to their Ministries of Justice or Foreign Affairs.
According to the president's decree, Ms. Milinchuk's salary and benefits will be equal to that of a deputy minister of justice. She will choose her staff in consultation with Mr. Ustinov, and the majority of Mr. Laptev's staff will presumably soon be looking for new jobs.
Ms. Milinchuk was trained as a lawyer and worked in the prosecutor's office in the Krasnodar region with future federal prosecutor general and justice minister Vladimir Ustinov. When Mr. Ustinov came to Moscow in 2001, he brought Ms. Milinchuk along to work in the International Justice Department of the prosecutor general's office. In February 2006, Mr. Ustinov transferred her to the position of deputy director of the Institute for Strengthening Law and Justice. Natalia Vishnyakova, the head of the Russian Justice Ministry's Management, Organization, and Control Department, who formerly also worked in the prosecutor general's office, described Ms. Milinchuk as "a professional of the highest order, especially in the sphere of international law." While working in the International Justice Department, Ms. Milinchuk defended her dissertation on "Mutual Assistance in Criminal Cases" and wrote a paper entitled "Important Issues in Improving the Practice of Confiscation" (she is a proponent of confiscating the property of individuals convicted of terrorism and particularly serious crimes).
Although Russia lost more than 80 cases at the Strasbourg Court last year, Kommersant's sources believe that this has little to do with Mr. Laptev's departure. Sources in the prosecutor general's office maintain that the Russian envoy to the Court was dismissed not in anger over past failures but in anticipation of future trials that will be important for Russia. A source in Strasbourg concurred, saying, "the reason is not so much the cases that Pavel Laptev lost in Strasbourg, but the cases that will be heard there in the future."
The most notorious case that is expected to come to trial soon in Strasbourg concerns the Yukos affair. The case, which is registered as number 14902/04, was filed with the court in 2004 by Steven Theede, an American who was the CEO of Yukos-Moscow. Kremlin officials have criticized the memorandum sent on behalf of the Russian government to Strasbourg by Pavel Laptev, in which Mr. Laptev responded only extremely briefly to the Court's question of whether Yukos had committed tax fraud. Specifically, he brought up only one matter: the charges of nonpayment of taxes that were brought against the company's head accountant, Irina Golub, who is now wanted internationally in connection with the case (she lives in London). For some reason, Mr. Laptev preferred to omit any mention of the other criminal charges brought against Yukos shareholders and executives by the Russian prosecutor general. The case against Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who were convicted in Moscow of tax evasion, has also been appealed to the Strasbourg Court.
However, human rights lawyers do not believe that the new Russian envoy to the European Court will have any influence on the outcome of the trials. "Unfortunately, the authorities [in Russia] think that the problem lies with a single person – Pavel Laptev. They simply do not understand that the problem lies with our justice system," said Irina Yasina, the former deputy chairwoman of Open Russia, the civil society organization founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. "They are used to the fact that in our courts you can cut some sort of deal, and they think that this will also be possible in the European Court. That is not true. If the Court in Strasbourg decides to review the matter of Khodorkovsky, then they will review his case, regardless of who is involved with the case in Russia, whether it is Laptev or Milinchuk, the presidential administration or the Ministry of Justice," she said.
Ekaterina Zapodinskaya and Nargiz Asadova
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 22, 2007
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