President Dmitry Medvedev started a cleanup campaign in Russia's weak and often-corrupt courts, as one of his allies moved to unseat a prominent judge for ethics violations.
Mr. Medvedev, a lawyer by training, has promised to make a stronger judiciary a priority. On Tuesday, he convened top officials and lawyers to set up a task force and propose legal changes.
"The main goal is to attain judicial independence in reality," he told the Kremlin meeting, calling for steps aimed at "the elimination of unjust rulings, rulings that often arise from various kinds of pressure, phone calls and, let's not hide it, money."
Read the report by Gregory L. White:
