Medvedev: Russia must improve courts

MOSCOW - Russia must rid its justice system of serious flaws that have driven thousands of its citizens abroad in search of justice, President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday.

Feeling let down or cheated by a domestic court system tainted by corruption and political influence, many Russians have turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France - an embarrassment for leaders seeking to remake Russia as a successful and self-sufficient country.

"The Strasbourg court, and any international court . . . cannot and must not take the place of the Russian court system," Medvedev said at a congress of Russian judges. "The justice system must be effective enough to bring appeals to international courts to a minimum."

Medvedev, a former lawyer and law professor, has repeatedly called for strengthening the rule of law in Russia - a goal Kremlin critics and Western governments say is crucial to the country's future stability and success.

He has also pledged to combat rampant official corruption. But there have been few signs of progress since he succeeded Vladimir Putin in May.

Medvedev lamented the severely insufficient enforcement of court decisions, saying only about half of the rulings made by Russian courts are implemented.

Russians have filed about 46,000 complaints with the European Court of Human Rights since 1998, accounting for one-fifth of the court's cases, a Moscow-based think tank reported in June.

ASSOCIATED PRESS