President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Lebedev, let me congratulate you on your confirmation in this high post of President of the Supreme Court.
You have already held this post for some time, but the new law that merged the Higher Arbitration Court and the Supreme Court into a single body has made the court more powerful and boosted its place within the state system. Much depends on the court system’s quality work and on the Supreme Court in general, and in its new form this is even truer than before.
You are someone with experience and I hope that you will put all your energy, knowledge and experience into organising the Supreme Court’s work in its new capacity, all the more so with the court preparing for its upcoming move to a new home in St Petersburg. This means there is a lot of organisational work to be done. I congratulate you and wish you all the best.
President of The Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev: Mr President, thank you very much for the great trust you have placed in me. Yes, there is indeed a lot of work ahead. On the human resources side we need to organise the Supreme Court’s staff and judges, and we need to prepare for the upcoming move.
Overall, we know what has to be done, Mr President. Work is busy at the best of times but now will be especially so as we need to form a single team of people at the Supreme Court.
I am confident however that we will dispense justice competently and in timely fashion, because the people working at the Supreme Court will be professionals, legal specialists who know the law and know the practice. The people already recommended by the special Qualifications Board of Judges are people with high potential overall. We will keep working.
Vladimir Putin: The judges do indeed make up a highly professional body. There is criticism too of course, but this is only to be expected in a democratic society and is the case for all government bodies.
We know though just how important the court system’s effective work is in general for developing the economy, strengthening statehood and consolidating our society’s democratic foundations. I sincerely wish you success.
Vyacheslav Lebedev: Thank you.
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