Daimler opens Mercedes-Benz plant in Moscow region

(Reuters) - German automaker Daimler officially opened a Mercedes-Benz factory near Moscow on Wednesday at a ceremony attended by President Vladimir Putin, marking a rare foreign investment into Russia's car industry.

The plant in the town of Esipovo 40 kilometers north west of Moscow is the first in years to be opened by a foreign carmaker in Russia where investment into the once burgeoning auto industry dried up amid western sanctions and a stagnant economy.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Putin said the plant would produce 25,000 cars a year and that investment in the project had totaled 19 billion roubles ($291 million).

Well, when you see that your opponents are all at sea at the courtroom, you usually think you're winning. There are the successfull cases that you've mentioned, of course, but not so many of them.

But, apart from the court system, the "multifunctional centres" and the Russian e-government system have taken away much queueing from the lives of Russian individuals and small businesses.

E-government and conflicts with government bodies are apples and oranges.

As for the latter the problem is some specific outlook the citizens has towards bureaucracy.

They see the state as an almighty pyramid with stupid and inept element sitting in the lower levels interacting with them and super smart and caring on top. All that is needed is to reach on top to get justice.

It was a gross misconception under USSR before and totally not working today in Russia and it is a reason of public disappointment in a system including the very top of it.

The fact is the Russian bureaucracy not ten feet tall and needs to be challenged but not with letters to higher ups or public protests over minor issues. It sets the system in a damage control mode and of course you lose.

On the countrary lawsuits are extraordinary effective when done right. The people losing it based on the same mentality described above. They just say the court they don’t agree with something and let the ‘smart’ judges sort it out. Of course the side which is more fluent in legal matters and that includes the government lawyers would prevail and then we hear that the judges are stupid and there is no justice.

Russia by all objective accounts has nearly the most transparent judicial system the world has ever seen and you would hardly see many intentionally queer rulings.

It doesn’t mean every ruling is just but the problem is your case should be presented in a right way based on legal norms and not your personal view of justice. The side doing it better prevails. So is process.
In short, don’t be cheap and pay for a good lawyer.

There are just two points:
I mentioned e-government to give some general insight on the Russian situatio now, not concerning the government-business conflicts;
What you've written here is obviously true, but the problem in that case was that the judge decided that she wanted neither to summon our witness nor to accept the expert evidence we had commissioned. I don't think such things happen in a fair trial.

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