CoE re-urges Russia to pay €10 mln compensation to Georgia

The CoE Committee of Ministers has urged Russia for the second time to pay  €10 million compensation to Georgia for illegal deportation of Georgians from Russia back in 2006, and with the step abide by the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered against Russia on January 31, 2019.

 Russia had the obligation to pay the compensation before the end of April 2019, but refused to do so.

The Georgian Justice Ministry has requested the Committee of Ministers, the CoE decision-making body, twice to make Russia fulfil its obligation.

The most recent statement by the CoE Committee of Ministers comes after discussing the issue between December three and five.

The CoE Committee of Ministers said that paying the fine is an unconditional obligation and despite the resistance of Russia it scheduled repeated debates around the case on its upcoming meeting in March 2020,” the Georgian Justice Ministry has reported earlier today. 

The Committee of Ministers says that Russia must also pay default interest accrued because of the delay of the payment.

Thousands of Georgians were illegally deported from Russia back in 2006. Photo: VOA. 

The ECHR judgement concerns the arrest, detention and collective expulsion of Georgian nationals from Russia in the autumn of 2006, shortly after the arrest of four Russian officers on charges of espionage by the previous, United National Movement government of Georgia in September 2006.

The Georgian government says that in 2006 more than 4,600 expulsion orders were issued by Russian authorities against Georgian nationals.

More than 2,300 were detained and forcibly expelled and the remaining left the country by their own means.

• The two key levers the Committee of Ministers has to make the country meet its obligations are the suspension of the country’s membership or its voting rights in the Council of Europe. 
• Russia regained its voting right to CoE only in June 2019, having lost it in 2014 following its annexation of the Crimea, amid the protest of Georgia, Ukraine and five other countries.
• Russia, which earlier had declined to pay its membership dues, agreed to pay them, as well as fines, amounting to €75 million before regaining the right.