The Constitutional Court for the first time allowed not to execute the decision of the ECHR

The Constitutional Court for the first time decided on a partial failure to fulfill the decision of the ECHR, TASS reports . We are talking about the decision of the Strasbourg Court in the case of "Antchugov and Gladkov against Russia" on the grant of suffrage to prisoners.

The KS decided that the decision of the ECHR cannot be executed in part, where it is proposed to deprive all of the prisoners of the right to vote. The KS found that the ECHR exceeded its powers, demanding that Russia grant electoral rights to those who are serving a sentence in the colonies. However, according to the Constitutional Court, the legislator can establish the status of certain types of places of detention of prisoners, in particular, a colony-settlement, as not entailing deprivation of electoral rights.

In his resolution of July 4, 2013, the ECHR noted that the ban on participating in the vote established by the Russian Constitution for persons deprived of liberty by the court verdict is “automatic and indistinct”. According to the Strasbourg Court, this contradicts the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, guaranteeing the right to free elections.

In this regard, the ECHR proposed to Russia to ensure the participation of prisoners in the elections through the political process or by developing a new interpretation of the Constitution.

In February, the Constitutional Court received a request from the Russian Ministry of Justice about the possibility of non -fulfillment of this decision of the ECHR . A similar request was already submitted to the Constitutional Court, Vladimir Churov, who served as head of the CEC, but the court recognized the CEC by an improper applicant.

The Russian authorities and the chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin have repeatedly publicly stated that the decision in the case of Anchugov and Gladkov directly contradicts the Constitution: according to Part 3 of Art. 32, "do not have the right to elect and be elected citizens recognized as legally incompetent, as well as those contained in places of imprisonment by the court verdict." This norm is also located in the second chapter of the Constitution, which cannot be changed without the adoption of a new basic law or a popular referendum.

These arguments appeared as the main in the request of the State Duma deputies to the Constitutional Court, on the basis of which on July 14, 2015, the Constitutional Court allowed himself to authorize the possibility of non -fulfillment of the decision of the ECHR, and were also grounds for adopting the appropriate amendments to the Law "On KS".

In mid -December 2015, Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing amendments to the Federal Law "On the Constitutional Society". Now the Constitutional Court is allowed to recognize the decisions of international courts , primarily the ECHR, in the event of their contradictions of the Russian constitution.