One can assume that Putin and Surkov — as well as Constitutional Court chief justice Valery Zorkin, an outspoken critic of the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions against Russia — deeply regret Yeltsin’s decision to surrender part of the country’s legal sovereignty to the European court, considering that claims from Russia now make up about 30 percent of all cases brought before the court — more than any other country — and the government loses about 95 percent of these cases. The real sovereignty showdown will occur if the European court rules in favor of Yukos in its $98 billion suit against the government, in which case Russia may seriously consider withdrawing its membership from the Council of Europe.
But there is one large group of people who are surely grateful to Yeltsin — the nearly 40,000 Russians who have been able to file their claims in Strasbourg because they couldn’t get justice at home. This shows that limiting Russia’s “sovereign democracy” is a moral imperative.
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