Cleaning Up Russia’s Courts

The big words on reforming the justice system continue to come from Russia’s new president:

“Our main target is to make sure that courts are independent,” Medvedev told a Kremlin meeting with top officials. “There is a principle under which courts only obey the law. This is the foundation of respect for the courts and faith in fair justice,” he added. “This is our basic task.” “A package of measures should be considered to rule out unlawful decisions (resulting from) various kinds of pressure, phone calls and … bribes,” Medvedev said.

The full text of his speech is here. These comments, plus the famous legal nihilism speech, make it difficult for the new president to creditably not make some major changes – which in the context of Russia’s legal system, can only be a good thing. After all, there’s a reason why he is winning over some new fans…