Under Putin, Russia’s Constitutional Court Now ‘a Potemkin Village of a Dictatorial Regime,’ Lukyanova Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – Under Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Constitutional Court has become “a Potemkin village of a dictatorial regime,” an organ prepared to rubber stamp anything the Kremlin wants and whose decisions are typically ignored by the Duma and treated as a joke by other Russian courts, Elena Lukayanova says.

            The author of a detailed history of the Court between 1992 and 2015 (hse.ru/data/2015/12/14/1134491815/Блохин П.Д. диссертация. 09.12.2015.pdf) tells the Vyorstka news agency that the court tries to appear active by taking up issues not properly its own (https://verstka.media/pochemu-konstitucionniy-sud-nachal-zanimatsia-ne-svoim-delom).

            She says that in the 1990s the situation was very different, and the court’s actions were worthy of study. But now, no one can take it seriously or should devote time to considering what it is doing.  Other experts the independent news agency surveyed seconded Lukyanova’s judgment.