St. PETERSBURG, 19 Jul — RIA Novosti. the constitutional court of Russia on Thursday put an end to years of dispute with the Strasbourg court the Yukos case, the authorities not necessarily to pay the former shareholders 1.9 billion euros, but some payments can be made as the discovery of “hidden” foreign assets Corporation.
Payments, if they are produced, will be former executives of Yukos, a large-scale organized scheme of tax evasion, and the ordinary shareholders. In any case, we are not talking about paying all 1.9 billion – an unprecedented amount in the history of the Court of human rights.
At the same time, the constitutional court noted that Russia respects the decision of the Strasbourg court and will abide by the regulations that do not conflict with national fundamental law.
case History
the ECHR 31 July 2014 ordered Russia to pay former shareholders of YUKOS almost 1.9 billion euros in compensation for violation of their rights to judicial protection and fair trial. The ECtHR concluded that the applicant company has suffered material losses as a result of retrospective fines for tax violations for the years 2000 and 2001 (1.3 billion euros), a 7% enforcement fee on these penalties (half a billion euros) and the “disproportionate character of the enforcement proceedings”.
the Ministry of justice as the state body entrusted with the duty to execute the decision of the ECtHR came to the conclusion that they are implemented. According to the Ministry of justice, the Strasbourg court was based on such interpretations of the Convention on the protection of human rights, which are at odds with the Russian Constitution.
a Public hearing was held in the constitutional court on December 15. Without exception, representatives of state authorities opposed the execution of the decision of the ECHR. So, the Plenipotentiary of the government in KS Michael Barshchevsky has described the intentions of the Russian authorities with the following words: “Like the old Jewish joke: anything to anyone”.
the Solution KS
“the constitutional court recognizes it impossible to carry out in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation decision of the ECHR in the case “Oil company “YUKOS” against Russia.” However, the Russian state on the basis of goodwill have the right to make certain payments to the former shareholders of the company affected by the misconduct of its management, at the expense of newly identified assets of Yukos,” reads the catechumens today in court records.
the constitutional court stressed that the decision of the ECHR “does not cancel for the Russian legal system the priority of the Constitution of the Russian Federation”.
the COP notes that the ECHR came to the wrong conclusion about collecting from YUKOS of fines and compensation as there had been a retroactive application of the law — article 113 of the Tax code of the Russian Federation on three-year limitation period of bringing to responsibility in the interpretation given by COP in its decision of 14 July 2005. Then the COP instructed to recover the share from taxpayers if they used a provision of the Statute of limitations contrary to its purpose, to the detriment of the rights of other taxpayers and legitimate public interest and let the tax control. KS stressed that this interpretation is no conflict with the constitutional prohibition of the retroactive effect of the law.
the COP noted that the activities of YUKOS as delinquent taxes, taking into account its occupied place in the economy of the country, had “prvorazredni effect.” The decision stated that the company used a “sophisticated scheme” of tax evasion and after the liquidation has left a debt outstanding, at 227 billion rubles.
In this context, according to a decision of the COP, the payment to the shareholders of the company an unprecedented amount of the budget system, which was not given huge tax payments required for fulfilment of public obligations to the citizens of Russia, contradicts the constitutional principles of equality and justice.
“Failure of the oil company “YUKOS” from payment of taxes in such an unprecedented way directly threatened the principles of legal democratic social state, which obliges authorities to act in enforcement proceedings as efficiently as possible so that opposition to dishonest taxpayers could be overcome”, — stated in the materials of the court.
Concessions Strasbourg
the Chairman of the constitutional court Valery Zorkin told reporters about the confidence that after today’s decision of the court “to pay Russia will not.” However, Zorkin noted that the decision of the constitutional court in fact did not agree with the applicant by the Ministry of justice of the Russian Federation.
“We did not read a single one procedural aspect, which the Ministry pointed to as the basis to disagree with Strasbourg. Even the issue of the right to appeal to the Strasbourg court”, — said Zorkin.
the Ministry of justice in its appeal to the constitutional court pointed out that shareholders of YUKOS had not exhausted all the possibilities of the Russian judicial system to protect their rights, and therefore could not apply to the ECHR. However, according to Zorkin, the constitutional court considered it inappropriate to act as a “Supervisory authority” in relation to the ECHR.
“Strasbourg, when they took this case, he apparently felt that these measures are exhausted. Should we argue with them? I think it would be by the constitutional court, in fact, to turn to the Supervisory authority. We are not supervision of the Strasbourg”, — said Zorkin.
the President of the COP stressed that the joint stock companies in Russia is arranged so that the shareholder bears all the consequences of management actions. According to Zorkin, foreign auditors in the Yukos case has drawn attention to the fact that the payment of taxes the company does not meet the requirements of the Russian legislation, and therefore the shareholders had to take some action.
“From the point of view of some higher justice, one case — members of the leadership companies that have taken billions of dollars from taxation, and another thing — ordinary shareholder who did not take part in it. Of course, in this sense, it can conditionally be called fair,” — said the head of the COP.
This is conditionally a bona fide shareholder of YUKOS, according to Zorkin, can be considered deceived, and therefore the state in the manner of goodwill can assign payments if will be detected unaccounted property of the company.
“I’m not saying that it exists. Maybe this wealth will appear when unlocking accounts, it should be returned to Russia. In order to start the procedure for this despradelle remaining assets to creditors and shareholders of these”, — said Zorkin.
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