Russia’s newly appointed business ombudsman eager to make impact on the local corporate environment
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Boris Titov, the president of the Delovaya Russiya (Business Russia) association, recently appointed by the Kremlin as the nation’s first business ombudsman, has made far reaching statements that indicate the scope of his agenda and the difficulties of the tasks ahead in its execution.
He has called for a review of all the cases of entrepreneurs that had been convicted of economic crimes, accused the courts of incompetence and unprofessionalism and called on the law enforcement agencies to first consider all cases against business executives as civil, and later treat them as criminal issues only if there are compromising circumstances.
“Russian business executives litigate one another in foreign courts because of the lack of independence of the local judiciary, rife corruption and widespread of politically tainted court verdicts,” he added.
The new ombudsman said it was highly imperative that Russian court verdicts were not contingent on bribery or political or influenced by other pressures from anywhere or by anyone. “Besides, our courts are non-professional and incompetent because they are like “Jack of all trades” as one court can try cases from vegetable theft to medical and space or transportation laws.”
To over these shortcomings, he has called for specialization of judges, a review of questionable verdicts on economic charges and deep, sweeping and comprehensive reform of the judiciary system.
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