The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers has reiterated the Russian Federation's unconditional legal obligation to implement judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and to pay 'just satisfaction' awarded by the Court.
The President of the Committee of Ministers made a statement on this issue, and the Council of Europe Secretary General sent a further letter to the Russian Foreign Minister, following the Committee's latest quarterly meeting on the execution of judgments from the European Court.
Four groups of Russian cases and two Georgia v. Russia interstate cases were examined by the Committee at the meeting. They concerned violations found in the Transdniestrian region of the Republic of Moldova and inadequate preparation of hostage-rescue operations resulting in loss of life and injuries in both the Dubrovka Theatre and in the hostage-taking crisis in Beslan in 2004, as well as criminal convictions based on an unfair trial and an arbitrary application of criminal law in cases concerning Aleksey Navalnyy.
Following the examination of the Georgia v. Russia (I) case, which concerns the arrest, detention and expulsion from the Russian Federation of large numbers of Georgian nationals in 2006-2007, the President of the Committee of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said:
"The Russian authorities must heed the Committee's call and comply with their unconditional obligations under international law to pay these sums and fully abide by the judgments of the European Court.
"The default interest on the amount awarded by the Court in Georgia v. Russia (I) continues to accrue and on 5 June 2023, the total amount owed by the Russian Federation in this case was EUR 11,525,068.49. Russia's delay in fulfilling this obligation deprives the individual victims of the violations from receiving compensation for the damages they suffered," he stressed.
