defend the interests of voters in court

The Voronezh Regional Court refused to accept City Duma deputy Sergei Vorobyov's application in which he asked to declare the Voronezh Region Law "On the Regional Budget for 2003" invalid. The court referred to the federal law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation” and pointed out to Mr. Vorobyov that “a deputy of the City Duma is not given the right to appeal to the court with a statement in defense of the rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of the elected body of local government and residents of the city of Voronezh.” . Sergei Vorobyov intends to appeal this refusal to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. A week ago, Voronezh City Duma deputy Sergei Vorobyov filed a lawsuit against the actions of the regional administration (Kommersant wrote about this on February 6). The deputy demanded that the law “On the Regional Budget for 2003” be recognized as contrary to federal legislation regarding the allocation of budget funds to the city of Voronezh. Confirming that he was right, Sergei Vorobyov wrote in the statement of claim that the regional budget was adopted with violations. According to the federal law “On the General Principles of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation,” if city and regional authorities have disagreements regarding the amount of funds allocated to the city from the regional budget, then a conciliation commission must be created before adopting the budget. Such a commission was not created in Voronezh.
As follows from the deputy’s statement, the law “On the Regional Budget” also violates the federal law “On the General Principles of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation”, since it does not provide the city budget with sources to cover the minimum necessary expenses. At the same time, the regional budget has a surplus, which should be used to pay off the public debt of the Voronezh region. And this, according to Sergei Vorobyov, contradicts Art. 34 (“The principle of efficiency and economy in the use of budgetary funds”) of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, since the regional budget cannot have a surplus when the city budget is in deficit. At the end of the claim, the deputy demanded that the law “On the Regional Budget for 2003” be recognized as contradictory to federal legislation and that it be repealed.
The court sent its refusal to accept Sergei Vorobyov’s claim to the deputy’s home address. It says that, according to the law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation,” “a deputy of the City Duma is not given the right to go to court with a statement in defense of the rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of the elected body of local self-government and residents of the city of Voronezh.” Mr. Vorobyov explained to a Kommersant correspondent yesterday that he considers this “the aerobatics of casuistry.” “It turns out that the deputy, who has been entrusted with thousands of voters to protect their rights, is deprived of this opportunity,” complained Sergei Vorobiev.
Yesterday he filed a cassation appeal to the judicial panel for civil cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The deputy believes that the Voronezh court made an erroneous conclusion, since the applicant himself is one of the residents of Voronezh, whose rights he is defending. “The status of a deputy does not deprive me of Russian citizenship,” said Sergei Vorobyov.
KIRILL KOMAROV

Kommersant (Voronezh) No. 43 from 03/14/2003

The deputy was denied the right