The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation

Today, in the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, a meeting was held between Mr. Yury Chaika, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, and Mr. Andreas Gross and Mr. Gyorgy Frunda, rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The new rapporteurs of PACE arrived in the Russian Federation with the aim to discuss the issues, concerning the execution of the obligations, undertaken by Russia upon entering the Council of Europe.
Ms. Bozena Tereza Nasilo, the Director of the Secretariat of the Monitoring Committee of PACE, and Ms. Marine Trevisan, the Secretary of the Monitoring Committee of PACE, and heads of the divisions of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation participated in the meeting.

Welcoming the guests, Mr. Yury Chaika stated that cooperation with the Council of Europe is one of the priorities in the international law activities of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
The Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation emphasized that close cooperation with the partners within the framework of the Council of Europe contributed to achievement of high results in execution of obligations which were undertaken by Russia in 1996 upon entering this international organization, first of all in the sphere of reforming the Prosecution Service. In the light of it, Mr. Yury Chaika familiarized the guests with the status, structure, tasks and forms of work of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation and expressed his readiness to answer all the questions which the guests might have.

Mr. Andreas Gross and Mr. Gyorgy Frunda, PACE co-rapporteurs, stated that the Russian Federation had already achieved certain success in the court reforms, but 'much is still to be done' according to their words.

In the course of the dialogue, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation spoke about the work to improve the supervision over execution of laws and observance of human rights and freedoms. He drew the attention of the rapporteurs to the issues of realization of prosecutors' functions to protect rights, especially if these functions are connected with the prosecutors' functions outside the criminal law sphere. Thus, Mr. Yury Chaika informed the guests that only in 2009 prosecutors filed 725, 000 lawsuits in court in the sphere of observance of citizens' rights and freedoms for the amount of 10, 500,000 roubles.

Speaking about the solution of high-profile crimes, including assassinations of journalists and those who protected human rights, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation stated that he is exercising permanent control over investigations of such cases. He also noted that he had repeatedly visited the republics of the Northern Caucasus where some 'high profile' murders were committed. Mr. Yury Chaika underlined that in order to render practical assistance well-experienced prosecutors and investigators from different subjects of the Russian Federation were sent on commission to the region of the Northern Caucasus.

The Prosecutor General of Russia also told the guests about active cooperation with public and rights-protecting organizations, the representatives of such organizations are members of the Scientific and Consultative Council of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.

In the course of the meeting, the parties discussed the issues of cooperation of the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia with the European Court of Human Rights and the measures, undertaken by the Russian authorities to execute the decisions of this court. In conclusion, Mr. Yury Chaika called for further development of mutually beneficial cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in combating crime.

The participants of the meeting expressed common opinion that it was a useful and constructive dialogue.