Russia’s Cossacks Set Up Their Own Independent All-Russian Arbitration Court

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 4 – In yet another step toward reifying their identity as a separate people, the Cossacks of Russia have set up a permanent inter-regional arbitration court that will hear cases involving Cossacks, a move that has many parallels with the spread of shariat courts among Muslim peoples within the Russian Federation.

            Even more important for what this means to the Cossacks who have long wanted such an institution, this move, although sanctioned by the government-sanctioned Council of the Atamans of Russia calls attention to the further degradation of a common legal space in the Russia of Vladimir Putin.

            This breakthrough development is reported by Valery Rozanov, the media coordinator for Cossack Affairs of the Central Federal District in an article in the Russian nationalist newspaper Zavtra who suggests this is a step toward the Cossacks having their own prosecutors and jails as well (zavtra.ru/blogs/v_rossii_vpervie_poyavitsya_kazachij_sud_na_ocheredi_prokuratura_i_tyur_ma).

                In fact, he says, the new all-Russian Cossack court has arisen on the basis of local Cossack arbitration courts in the Urals, Ryazan, the Far East and the Kuban which were organized earlier by Cossack NGOs.  But the new court enjoys official sanction and will operate on a permanent basis with highly trained legal specialists as judges.

            The new court, Rozanov continues, “will consider private and economic disputes not only among Cossacks, but all citizens can appeal to our Court in order to obtain a just resolution.” Under Russian law, this court and its decisions will have the same status as Russian arbitration courts.

            The court has not yet been registered with the Russian justice ministry, the Cossack spokesman acknowledges, but “even if that organ refuses it registration, we will continue to function as an autonomous arbiter on an ad hoc basis,” something that Russian law currently allows.

            “Our Court,” he says, “in principle will give us the chance while not entering into conflict with Federal Russian law to fulfill the most important demands of Cossacks for justice.” It will be based on Cossack traditions and customary law and thus will enjoy the respect and backing of all Cossacks.

            One of the organizers of the court told Rozanov that the Cossacks can expect the formation of other state institutions in the future. “We already have a Cossack Counter-Intelligence Service” and logic dictates that there should eventually be a Cossack procuracy as well.”

            Separate prisons for Cossacks are another matter, this Cossack official said. “Prison for a Cossack always was life outside of the Cossack community.”