What the media were silent: Yuri Luzhkov won a “politically inappropriate” victory in court

The Moscow City Court recognized the decision to be legal, which obliged the entrepreneur Alexander Lebedev to refute the application for the involvement of the ex-mayor of the capital Yuri Luzhkov in the theft of budgetary funds and pay him 80 thousand rubles of compensation, the lawyer Luzhkova Alexei Melnikov said on Monday.

The reason for Luzhkov’s appeal to the court with a claim for the protection of honor and dignity was two “U -turn” and Duralex programs. They went on the air of the Echo of Moscow radio station on July 22 and 23, 2011. “In the first, Lebedev said that Luzhkov stole $ 5 billion, and in the second - $ 10 billion. At the same time, he claimed that Luzhkov washed money in London, ”said Melnikov. The court recognized these statements by false.

Although the decision was made by the Moscow City Court on February 16, until now the media have not reported anything about it. But Luzhkov’s loss was actively covered in a lawsuit with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, by the way on the same day and in a similar lawsuit. The protection of the former mayor of Moscow connects this selective approach of the media to the issue of covering two court decisions with their "unhealthy politicism."

“The unhealthy politicization of this situation is confirmed, including the fact that the court decision made on the same day in the Luzhkov case against Zhirinovsky was not widely covered in the media, and his victory over Lebedev was completely silent,” Melnikov emphasized.

Indeed, according to the media monitoring systems, on February 16, Yuri Luzhkov was lost about the loss of Yuri Luzhkov on February 16, including the Vedomosti newspaper. Not a single mention of February was won about the same day by Luzhkov’s victory over Lebedev.

At the same time, it cannot but arouse interest in the background of two directly opposite court decisions, made on the same day, for almost similar cases. It is enough to recall that Vladimir Zhirinovsky successfully continues to participate in the presidential race, i.e. It is perceived as a player loyal to the authorities, who, in this situation, is absolutely no for judicial fiasco. And it cannot be excluded that in this case justice was in a subordinate position in relation to considerations of political expediency. But Alexander Lebedev, in the offices of the bank, which belongs to the searches, is in the same weight category with the ex-mayor “detonated” from power, so in this case the court was free to make a decision not “according to concepts”, but by justice.

The absence of an independent judicial system in Russia regularly becomes a reason for criticizing Dmitry Medvedev from his opponents. In particular, Alexei Kudrin (which is difficult to suspect in sympathies, for example, to Yuri Luzhkov) directly indicated the guilt of the still current president in the failure of the judicial reform: "There is no political responsibility for the fact that this does not happen." In revenge for these words, Dmitry Medvedev even awarded Alexei Kudrin offensive by the current time by definition: "He is not an oppositionist."

However, while this polemic continues, and there is no progress on the path of judicial reform, it can be predicted that with a high degree of probability, court decisions will continue to be made taking into account the loyalty or opposition of the defendants in relation to the current government. And in this situation, not only the disgraced ex-mayor, but also to any citizen, count on a fair court and the support of the “free” press in his native Fatherland at least naive.