The adoption by the State Duma on the first reading of four draft laws from the package of draft laws on judicial reform represents "the initial stage of the real democratisation and protection of the judicial authority in Russia." Such an opinion was expressed by the deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament Igor Artemyev at a press conference in St. Petersburg on July 2, 2001.

Artemyev also said that Yabloko was "satisfied by the quality of the draft laws submitted toš parliament." In general, according to his data, 53 amendments proposed by the Yabloko faction were considered by the Presidential Administration.

In particular, Artemyev noted that the introduction of a system of court-sanctioned arrests, the introduction of jury courts all over Russia, equality of sides in court, a simplified system of court reviews on "minor crimes" and the transfer of the prerogative of appointing about one-third of the members of judical qualification commissions to the regional parliaments.

At the same time, Artemyev noted with regret that Yabloko did not manage to "defend" the need to create a Federal Investigation Service of the RF which would have been subordinated directly to the President of the RF and the introduction of the status of an independent Public Prosecutor of the RF.

The package of draft laws that the deputies of the Duma supported last Thursday referred mainly to the status and proxies of the judges, including the judges of the Constitutional Court of the RF. Corresponding amendments and additions were made to the laws "On the Status of Judges in the RF," "On the Judicial System in the RF" and "On the Constitutional Court of the RF". In addition the law "On Barristers' Activity and the Bar of the RF" was adopted on first reading. This was the fourth law in the presidential package.

All the draft laws gathered the constitutional majority of votes – from
379 to 389 votes.

The draft laws were prepared within the framework of the working group headed by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitri Kozak.

Based on Interfax reports.