Translated material
The court is coming!
CC employees will go to Senate Square
A week later, on May 12, the final point will be put in the history of the “migration” of the Constitutional Court from Moscow to St. Petersburg . As the press service of the Constitutional Court reported, on this day all 19 judges and 30 staff members out of 250 will move to the northern capital. The archive and all documents currently on file have already been transported to the Senate and Synod building, where this highest authority will henceforth be located. consideration by judges. Applicants' requests are also forwarded there. For now, complaints to the Constitutional Court can still be sent to the old address (103132, Moscow, Ilyinka Street, building 21), but from May 21 the address will change completely and will look like this: 190000, St. Petersburg, Dekabristov Square, building 1. By the way, in Soon this square will return its historical name - Senate. On April 11, the corresponding decision was approved by the toponymic commission of St. Petersburg, and the members of the commission indicated the relocation of the CC as one of the reasons for the renaming.Already on May 22, the first hearing will be held in the newly restored court building: the Constitutional Court will consider the complaint of the government of the Stavropol Territory regarding the division of powers between the executive and legislative powers of the region prescribed in the regional charter. By the way, in order to get acquainted with the current work of the court, you don’t have to go to St. Petersburg - the sessions of the Constitutional Court will be broadcast in the Moscow representative office. Part of the court's press service will also remain in the capital.
“The journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg,” which began on February 1, cost the budget 221 million rubles. Moreover, this amount did not include the costs of reconstructing the historical building. From the financial and economic justification for the move, it follows that 179 million was spent on arranging housing for judges and court staff and 3 million directly on their move and transportation of property.
Among other things, the issue of constructing a residential building, a garage and a clinic for judges and the construction of a “welfare complex” in the village of Komarovo for their summer holidays were considered. The purchase of furniture for the court cost 30 million, communication services cost 6 million, and transportation of archives cost 3 million. Let us note that the judges (who, judging by the official version, were not satisfied with the cramped conditions in the building on Old Square) will have to make room in a new place - from December this year, the Boris Yeltsin Library will be opened in the same building of the Senate and Synod.
If the move itself took three months, then the discussion on the issue of transferring the KS to the city on the Neva lasted at least three years. In 2005, the issue of changing the place of residence of the court was introduced to the State Duma. In March 2006, the “Movement Law” passed its first reading, but only almost a year later, in February 2007, was it signed by the president. As you know, Vladimir Putin complied with the wishes of the authorities of his “small homeland,” who had long insisted that it would be a good idea to transfer one of the highest courts to the northern capital. At one of the press conferences, the president emphasized that, being located in a building on Ilyinka, the CS “is not in the best living conditions.” “Therefore, the relocation of the Constitutional Court will not be associated with huge unreasonable costs, bearing in mind that the building of the Senate and Synod still needs to be reconstructed and restored,” the head of state reasonably noted. - Whether the Constitutional Court moves there or not, money still needs to be invested in its restoration. Therefore, by solving the problem of restoration and ensuring the normal functioning of the Constitutional Court, we are immediately killing two birds with one stone.”
True, the judges themselves were initially not particularly enthusiastic about the idea of changing Old Square to Decembrists Square. After the Duma approved the law in the first reading, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, unexpectedly spoke out against the move. Addressing the legislators, the chairman of the court expressed the hope that they would change their minds, because a change in place of work would negatively affect the quality of this work. Mr. Zorkin argued that not all judges would agree to go to St. Petersburg, and it was unlikely to be possible to recruit qualified lawyers “off the street” capable of making decisions on the constitutionality of laws.
However, as a result, the judges and employees of the Constitutional Court were nevertheless persuaded to leave Moscow. Only two heads of court departments will not move to St. Petersburg, Pyotr Kondratov and Elena Getman, who moved to work at another higher authority - they were appointed judges of the Supreme Court.