Non-executive branch

The state decides how to force itself to pay its citizens

The Russian leadership urgently began to solve a long-standing, but by no means lost its relevance problem - the execution, or rather, the general non-execution by the state itself of court decisions taken in favor of citizens on various social payments - pensions, benefits and salaries of public sector employees. A special meeting held at the end of last week in the Voronezh region was devoted to this topic, in which representatives of all levels of government, starting with the presidential administration, took part. As it turned out, the debts of government agencies in lawsuits to citizens have already reached very serious proportions and continue to grow. However, the state itself cannot pay off these debts simply because there is no financial and legal mechanism for paying money in such cases. Moreover, as it turned out, no one really knows how much Russian citizens have “sued” from their native state in recent years based on completely fair demands.

This problem itself is not new, but until now only those who themselves were faced with the impossibility of getting the state to enforce a court decision were indignant. However, this did not cause much resonance. Most citizens, having received a writ of execution, at best sent letters to newspapers and authorities, where they could not help them in any way. However, since Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998, more and more citizens began to realize how they could still hold their state accountable - and began to file complaints with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). . And he began to churn out similar resolutions one after another - to find Russia guilty of violating human rights and oblige the authorities to pay compensation to the victims (usually several thousand euros) “for the moral suffering suffered.” And such court decisions could no longer be ignored. As a result, the Russian authorities are now forced to admit that the failure of the state itself discredits it not only in the eyes of its own citizens, but also in the eyes of the world community. Because in this case, as is now recognized, we are talking about a massive violation of human rights .

According to the decision of the Kremlin administration, by mid-March 2007, appropriate meetings must be held in all federal districts with the participation of representatives of all legislative, executive and judicial authorities. The first such event in the Central District (CFD) will be held in Moscow at the end of December. And at the end of last week, a meeting was held in the Voronezh region, which, as it turned out, holds the record for non-execution of court decisions. According to sources in the presidential administration, every fourth complaint to the ECHR was written by residents of the Voronezh region. And the number of unfulfilled court decisions in the city of Novovoronezh alone is twice as large as its entire population of 40 thousand people.

The basis for applying to Strasbourg in this case is a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (EC) - the right to a fair public trial within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial court. And it is precisely in terms of compliance with “reasonable deadlines” that a violation of this article of the EC is found.

The fact is that, according to Russian legislation, a court decision is considered final from the moment it is made and enters into legal force. However, according to European law, it is not considered to have taken place until the judicial act is executed. And since the ECHR uses precedent practice in its work, it was enough to consider in detail only one case on a complaint from a Russian citizen about non-execution of a court decision, in order to then make decisions on its basis in other similar cases.

As Anatoly Semushkin, head of the department of the plenipotentiary representative for the Central Federal District, said at a meeting in Voronezh, debts on social payments to citizens began to accumulate in the mid-90s, when a number of laws on various benefits were adopted. In total, there were about 40 such benefits, and the main debts related to the so-called “Chernobyl” payments, pensions and child benefits. “When these debts accumulated, citizens began to go to the courts, and they made decisions on the obligation to make payments. When these decisions came into force, citizens naturally tried to get their money, but could not, Mr. Semushkin explained the origin of the problem. - And in Europe we are reaping the benefits in specific cases. It turns out that Russia does not comply with court decisions. This is a paradox. This discredits the entire system of power.”

The situation turned out to be absolutely neglected: as the officials themselves admit, they do not even have accurate data on the amount of debt. Only approximate amounts are mentioned, but they are “obviously underestimated.” Thus, in the Central Federal District, the debt of regional authorities on pensions and their indexation is about 29 million rubles. (and the lion's share of this debt falls on the Voronezh region), and for child benefits and their indexation - 81.7 million rubles. The total amount of debt of the federal center is almost ten times higher and amounts to about 800 million rubles. This is especially true for payments to disabled people injured as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant . “These data are incomplete and do not reflect the true state of affairs,” a Vremya Novostey source in the presidential administration admitted. “The real amount of debt owed to all Chernobyl victims is much greater.” The calculation is also complicated by the fact that due to many years of non-payment, the debt grows like a snowball - prices rise, and with them the indexation of benefits. In addition, the flow of human complaints to both national courts and the ECHR is constantly growing.

“We ourselves gave rise to these complaints about non-execution of decisions,” Mr. Semushkin noted at the Voronezh meeting. “We ourselves forced people to go to the courts, get decisions on payments, and then go to the European Court.”

So what prevents the authorities from paying their citizens on the basis of court decisions? As it turns out, bailiffs are the least to blame for this. “Many people have the opinion that since court decisions are not executed, then the bailiffs are to blame. But this is not so,” the acting acting director told those gathered in Voronezh. Vera Popova, head of the regional department of bailiff service. -- Bailiffs do not deal with enforcement cases regarding budget debts; this is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and its regional and municipal divisions. And the absence of a legal mechanism for the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance gives rise to the legal opportunity not to comply with court decisions. The collection system is not effective enough. And the bailiffs are assigned only the formal role of an outside observer in this.”

Officials from the Voronezh department of the Federal Treasury, in turn, were forced to admit that they do not pay such debts, since the regulations on the Ministry of Finance do not indicate that it is obliged to pay them.

In addition to the financial department, the main debtors of the Russians were named the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health and Social Development. And the regions, as it turned out, simply cannot pay off such obligations without agreement with the center, otherwise they will be accused of misuse of budget funds.

As a source in the administration explained, the Ministry of Finance refuses to allocate funds to the regions, arguing that “if you pay pensioners, you will have to pay Chernobyl victims, teachers, and all other beneficiaries.” “That’s why we decided not to pay anyone at all,” our source said. — Or rather, they pay only those who reached the European Court. But many will never get anything, because old people and disabled people are dying.”

At the meeting in Voronezh, several proposals were made that could help resolve the current situation. Officials came to the conclusion that the subjects cannot cope with this problem alone and it needs to be solved “systematically and comprehensively.” Thus, in their opinion, it is necessary to make “adjustments to the budgets of all levels for 2007 and subsequent years, without fail providing in a separate line the corresponding amounts of financial resources necessary to pay off debts on social obligations to citizens.” It should be noted that although the budget for 2007, recently adopted by the State Duma, has not yet been approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president, it is unlikely that serious changes can be made to it and this will become possible only next year.

In addition to budgetary innovations, it was also proposed to strengthen the responsibility of federal authorities for paying off debts at the legislative level, as well as with the help of the prosecutor's office. In particular, as a source in the Kremlin administration explained, it is necessary to amend the law “On Enforcement Proceedings” and establish “a special procedure for the execution of court decisions on claims against the Russian Federation, and provide additional powers to bailiffs and treasury authorities.” It is also expected to develop a bill to fulfill the state’s social obligations to citizens and determine the procedure and mechanism for compensation payments related to their untimely fulfillment.

The Commissioner of the Russian Federation at the ECHR, Pavel Laptev, who participated in the Voronezh meeting, stated the need to “strengthen prosecutorial supervision over the execution of court decisions.” “If we do not comply with court decisions, we will bear criminal liability,” he said. And the prosecutor of the Voronezh region, Nikolai Shishkin, proposed creating “at the federal level a mechanism for tracking applications to the ECHR”, so that the authorities would have the opportunity to resolve the case amicably for each specific complaint, without leading to a European scandal.

“I am very upset to see how old people are lining up in district courts even after funds were allocated to the Voronezh region to pay off debts,” Mr. Laptev noted. And the first deputy governor, in conclusion, hastened to reassure him: “We don’t need to be persuaded, we are for our citizens. I think that if we combine our efforts, including with the federal center, we will solve this problem.”

Ekaterina BUTORINA, Voronezh - Moscow