The decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) are often politicized, and trust in them is declining, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told TASS. This is how he commented on the decision of the Strasbourg court, which on April 13 awarded almost 3 million euros to the victims of the seizure and storming of the school in Beslan in 2004 and came to the conclusion that the state failed to take measures to protect the lives of citizens, made mistakes in negotiations with terrorists and operations against them after the seizure of the school, and did not properly investigate the events in Beslan.

According to Volodin, other countries also pay attention to the politicization of the ECHR decisions: "Great Britain spoke about this, emphasizing that the body, which is financed by members of the Council of Europe, makes decisions without taking into account national legislation." In this regard, the speaker recalled, the Duma decided to ratify Protocol No. 15 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on the subsidiary (complementary) role of the ECHR in relation to national legal systems. This agreement "assumes that the final decision on the part of the ECHR is still made by the national court, focusing on national legislation and knowledge of the situation directly in the country where the decision is made," he said.

"When ECHR judges make decisions, it would be right for them to request detailed information and develop decisions based on the principles of adversarial proceedings, as should be the case in any court," Volodin said. "But since they often do not ask anyone, their decisions are politicized, and trust in these decisions is declining. And it is declining not only on our side, but on the side of many European countries."

The speaker added that “everything must be done to help the residents of Beslan – both within the framework of the decisions that have been implemented, and so that the region receives additional funds,” Volodin believes.

Volodin says trust in ECHR decisions has declined