MOSCOW, February 6 - RAPSI. Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin advocates mitigation of the "punitive trend" in the Russian judicial system and inter alia proposes to establish administrative courts to resolve disputes between individuals and officials.

"We will mike justice available for citizens. Particularly, we will adopt administrative legal proceedings not only for businessmen but for disputes between individuals and officials. The spirit and the purport of administrative trials is that individuals are more vulnerable in court than officials. The burden of proof shall fall on the administrative body, rather than individual. This is why the practice of administrative proceedings is intended to protect individuals' rights," Putin wrote in his article "Democracy and the Quality of State" published in Kommersant daily on Monday.

The prime minister also proposes to grant NGOs the right to submit lawsuits to protect their members.

The prime minister also plans to establish a single judgments database for courts of general jurisdiction. Such database is already exists in the of commercial courts system.

Putin also stressed the necessity of reviving "judicial" journalism.

The Kommersant article is the fourth of Putin's policy articles.

The first one was published on January 16 in the Izvestia on Russia's most pressing problems; the second article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on January 23 focused on ethnic issues. The article carried by Vedomosti on January 30 addressed economic matters.

The presidential elections will be held on March 4.