MOSCOW, February 9 (RAPSI) – The progress in the development of new technologies and web conferences will permit parties to participate in court hearings via their personal smartphones or computers, according to the Chairman of Russia’s Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev.

On Tuesday, Lebedev addressed the participants of a meeting of judges of Russia’s general jurisdiction and commercial courts saying that last year about 400,000 court hearings were held via video links because of the pandemic.

Over the same period, 3 billion requests were received through the Pravosudiye ("Justice") State Automated System, which is serving as a common information platform for all of the courts of general jurisdiction; Russian courts received about 3 million e-documents.