Chechen president awarded libel damages
Published: 06 October, 2009, 18:40
Edited: 07 October, 2009, 07:01
On Tuesday a court in Moscow has satisfied in part the lawsuit taken by the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov who was demanding an apology from the human rights group “Memorial”.
It is a good start. The sense of entitlement that some organizations feel has gone out of control. Many such organizations in Russia have long ago crossed the line between criticism and pathological vitriol. The lines of acceptable conduct must exist in a society to function in harmony amidst diversity. It is really questionable for Russia to accept the rulings of external courts in all matters. When European Court can arbitrarily single out Russia for not recognizing Scientology as a religion, while other European countries themselves have no consensus, is not just hypocritical. It is by far more serious. A judicial system cannot exist without judicial norms, a jurisprudence based on a system acceptable to the parties. In this case, it is a forgone conclusion that the group will go shopping for a more favorable ruling elsewhere. And why not? Russia needs to carefully examine the legal systems it is accepting rulings from. The way things stand, the arbitrary rulings coming from external courts bear no relevance to jurisprudence. It is just politics --- plain and simple.










It is not the money that the president would have been expecting. Head of states are sensitive to defamatory speeches about them.