The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe concerned over Russia’s refusal to pay compensation to Georgia
By Veronika Malinboym
Tuesday, March 16
The compensation concerns the cases of arrest, detention, and consequent deportation of Georgian citizens from Russia in 2006 – the events that unfolded shortly after the arrest of four Russian officers on charges of espionage in Georgia.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in 2019 that Russia is obliged to repay 10,000,000 euros for “non-pecuniary damage suffered by a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals”:
“In its judgment in the inter-state case concerning just satisfaction (Georgia v. Russia) the Court held that the Russian Federation had to pay the Georgian Government a lump-sum of ˆ10,000,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals. It further ordered the Georgian Government to distribute the amount received between the victims of the established administrative practice,” the Court press release reads.
Earlier this year, on January 8, Georgian Minister of Justice Gocha Lortkipanidze announced that Russia is finally ready to participate in discussions of its obligations to repay ˆ10 million to Georgian citizens, as well as default interest accrued’ after numerous refusals and after the expiration of the payment deadline in 2019.
However, during the recent meeting of the CoE, deputies expressed their concerns over the repeated delays in the payment of the compensation and urged both Russian and Georgian authorities to settle the issue “through a Council of Europe bank account held in escrow.”
According to the Georgian government, more than 4,600 expulsion orders were issued by the Russian authorities in 2006, 2,300 of which were detained and expelled against their will, while the others left the country of their own volition.