At the end of May, Strasbourg delivered decisions unfavorable for Russia about 5 cases related to kidnappings in Chechnya, and in the middle of June there were another two decisions. The other day, on 26 June the European Court recognized again that Russia is to be blamed for missing of people. The story goes like this: in July 2001 Russian militaries carried out a mopping-up operation in the city of Sernovodsk (Sunjensky district). Tens of men were detained, with Apti Isigov and Zelimkhan Umkhanov being among them. After the federal soldiers took the detainees to a temporary filtration station, the two above mentioned persons disappeared. In 2003 the prosecutor’s office of Chechnya passed to the militaries the materials naming those responsible of taking the people away – that’s lieutenant A.G.Kroshin (he commanded the APC # Ch025 bringing people away) and his superior, major V.V.Mezentsev, the commander of the unit #6785 (46th brigade of special purpose at MVD). While investigation was going on, V.V.Mezentsev died and Kroshin retired. In 2005 the case was dismissed. The Europeans were perplexed with the fact that after the name of the military unit was established, investigation was stopped several times due to impossibility of establishing those guilty. So it was decided that Russia had violated several articles of the European Convention, including the norm saying about the right for life and 95,000 euro are to be paid to the relatives of the killed people.  

Losing in Strasbourg so many times and with such reasoning (last year the compensations by Russia to victims of human rights violations amounted to €4.3 millions) the domestic officials call the European Court’s decisions to be “biased” and “politically committed”.  

Against this background of “anti-Russian” activities by Strasburg, a substitution of the authorized representative has been made. Veronika Milinchuk had become the authorized representative at Ustinov (former minister of justice) and simultaneously with that she became the deputy minister of justice. Now the new minister Alexander Konovalov needs another person at this important position. It became known on Friday that Viktor Evtukhov, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg, a member of United Russia, might be sent to fill the position. Konovalov and Evtukhov studied at one school and then in 1998-2001, when Konovalov was the prosecutor of Moskovsky district of St Petersburg, Evtukhov was the deputy running in the same district.        

“I cannot congratulate Russia with such a representative” reasons Yuri Schmidt, a well known lawyer from St Petersburg. “No one considers Evtukhov to be a juridical genius”. Graduating from Financial-Economic Institute in the middle of 90’s, Viktor Evtukhov was engaged in trade and later he appeared in the ticket of Yuri Boldyrev to the Legislative Assembly in 1998. Presented to the public as a young economist, in the campaigning clips he was shown taking a stroll in the Victory Park or sitting at the table where the photo of Boldyrev was seen.    

On becoming a deputy Viktor Evtukhov betrayed his benefactor: less than after a year he left the faction. However, he did not give up his mandate and in the next years he changed many factions and finally stayed with United Russia. At any times he supported the standing governors of St Petersburg – Vladimir Yakovlev first and then Valentina Matvienko. As a lawmaker, Viktor Evtukhov has a notorious reputation. In 2002 he just copied a major part of a bill by Natalia Evdokimova (a Yabloko member) about food catering for pupils at schools, and he tried to pass it as his own work. Then the deputies condemned him for the plagiarism and passed the original version. However, in the next convocation the “Evtukhov’s method” was adopted widely by United Russia. The “bears” plagiarized other people’s bills and passed it as if they were made by themselves. Viktor Evtukhov is also remembered with the fact that thanks to him the Elphyskiy Garden, where Josef Brodsky and Viktor Tsoi (Russian legendary rock musician) used to take a stroll. At the legislative meeting Evtukhov stated that the only thing Brodsky did in the garden in question was drinking the port.        

“What do you want me to tell? Ok, write it the way you like” he said once to a journalist, giving him an interview. Well, it appears that in Strasburg it will not be possible to behave like that.