Krasnodar court ignores Supreme Court ruling on Valentina Shostak case

The Krasnodar Regional Court, which received Valentina Shostak's complaint from the Supreme Court, refused to consider the case on the merits, redirecting it to the court of first instance. This decision contradicts the position of the higher court, the activist said.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the fourth cassation court considered Valentina Shostak's cassation appeal on August 21, 2024 and recognized the decisions of the lower courts as correct. Shostak said that she was ready to go to the Supreme Court to defend her rights. In June 2025, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned the decision to deprive Valentina Shostak of her powers as a member of the territorial election commission from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Krasnodar Krai and returned the case for a new trial.

Valentina Shostak On August 5, she personally attended a hearing of the regional court, trying to defend her rights to work in the TEC. Two members of the TEC also arrived in court - they brought with them three witnesses whom Shostak, according to her own words, had never seen before.

“On June 11, the Supreme Court judge orally announced only the operative part of his decision: to cancel all decisions of the lower courts and send the case for review. The court did not specify where exactly, but then I received the decision of the Supreme Court and it clearly stated: “send the case to the regional court of appeal,” from where I received a summons with an invitation to court,” Valentina Shostak told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. A copy of the Supreme Court decision is at the disposal of the “Caucasian Knot.”

According to Shostak, the court did not conduct a re-appellate hearing of the case, but sent it to Goryachy Klyuch - to the judges who had already heard it twice.

“The judge read out the Supreme Court decision and announced that he believed that he did not have the right to review this decision, since the (Supreme) Court overturned not only the decision of the regional court as an appellate court, but also the decision of the first instance court in Goryachy Klyuch. After deliberating on the spot, the court decided to send the case for consideration in Goryachy Klyuch, ignoring the Supreme Court’s instructions, and the prosecutor supported the judge’s decision,” Valentina Shostak said.

The activist noted that the Goryachy Klyuch Territorial Electoral Commission has already begun its work ahead of the local Duma elections on September 14. According to Shostak, the courts are delaying the consideration of the case so that she cannot be reinstated as a member of the electoral commission before the elections. "This case has been going on since March last year and there is no end in sight. If I am reinstated after the elections on September 14, then the question is why was it necessary to go through such circles of hell in order not to gain access to influence the independence and legality of the election campaign," she summarized.

The Supreme Court "recognized significant violations at all stages of the case's consideration" and directly indicated that the case requires a re-examination in the appellate court, "otherwise it is impossible to protect violated rights"; other options for reviewing the case, including returning it to the court of first instance, contradict the instructions of the Supreme Court, noted Gennady Yuryev, a lawyer from Krasnodar who assisted Shostak. He noted that the appellate court, which had previously violated Shostak's rights, now effectively "deprived the activist of the right to an effective and timely judicial appeal, guaranteed by the articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the European Convention."

"Procedural equality (the principle of adversarial proceedings) was also violated - this and other courts did not request evidence from the defense, did not motivate the refusal to accept the document, did not clarify the key circumstances of the case; violated the direct instructions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation by refusing to review the case on appeal. Instead of enforcing the decision of the Supreme Court, the regional court launched a new cycle of consideration of the case in the same instance from which it was overturned, this is a gross violation of procedural guarantees and trust in the court," Yuryev said.

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