ST. PETERSBURG, October 13 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Russia’s Ministry of Justice has asked the Constitutional Court to study the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling regarding €1.9 bln compensation to former Yukos shareholders, RAPSI learned from the Ministry’s press-service on Wednesday.

“The request for the Constitutional Court to review ECHR’s July 31, 2014 ruling in “Yukos vs Russia” case was signed on October 12,” the Ministry’s press-service noted.

The inquiry was prepared based on Ministry’s conclusion on the impossibility of following through with ECHR’s ruling as well as reports of the Federal Bailiff Service and the Federal Tax Service.

The Ministry of Justice believes that obligations put on Russia by the ECHR are based on the Convention of Human Rights in interpretation conflicting with the ones of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

In the summer of 2014 the ECHR ruled that Russia must pay 1.9 billion euros in compensation and legal expenses to former Yukos shareholders.

At the end of 2015 Russia's Constitutional Court was granted the right to recognize decisions of international courts, including Strasburg based ECHR, as non-executable. The legislation was developed taking into account the respective Constitutional Court’s ruling establishing that each case of ECHR decision implementation should be reviewed individually and these decisions should be executed only on the principle of supremacy of the Russian Constitution.