Full text in English of the first Russian FOI act that came into force on January 1, 2010.

On July 22, the Kuibyshevsky district court of St.-Petersburg obliged the St.-Petersburg City Committee for Town-Planning and Architecture to provide a response to a request for information on the “Okhta Center” construction.

After almost a year of court battle, the St.-Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Head Department of Ministry for Justice is now obliged to cancel its warning against the IIFD and to pay us 200 rubles to compensate the state duty. Is this a real compensation for a year of impossibility to work normally?

On July 21, 2010, the St.-Petersburg City Court will review the cassation appeal of the St.-Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Head Department of the Ministry for Justice against a lower-instance court decision on the IIFD’s claim that considers a warning made by the Department unlawful.

On July 13, 2010, the Moscow City Court once more examined the case on unlawfully classified materials addressing execution of Polish military service people near Katyn during the World War II. The Memorial Society, in particular, demands to declasify the statement of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office (2004) terminating investigation of the Katyn case.

Ulyanovsk Oblast: the regional government learns to use YouTube. Videos of regional head officials’ speeches will be regularly placed at the popular Internet resource in order to increase openness and transparency.