4.  The applicant was born in 1975 and lives in the town of Shakhty of the Rostov Region. 5.  In the 1980s the applicant's father took part in the emergency operation at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Until March 1996 the Shakhty Town Social Security Service (hereafter - the Service) made monthly payments to the father as a compensation for health damage. 6.  After the Service stopped payments, the father sued it for arrears and a penalty. On 28 February 1997 the Shakhty Town Court awarded him 30,640,341 Russian roubles (“RUR”) in arrears and the same amount as the penalty. 7.  On 24 April 1997 the arrears, but not the penalty, were paid. 8.  After the father's death, on 26 March 1999 a notary public issued the applicant with an inheritance certificate certifying his right to one half of the penalty awarded by the judgment of 28 February 1997. The applicant's grandmother was issued with a certificate confirming her right to the second half of the penalty. 9.  As the penalty had not been paid, the Shakhty Town Court, upon the applicant's and his grandmother's request, ordered the following increases of the penalty to take account of the inflation:
- in the judgment of 14 February 2000, by RUR 57,165.71;
- in the judgment of 13 August 2001, by RUR 29,764.6; and
- in the judgment of 29 March 2002, by RUR 17,254.96.
Those judgments were not appealed against and became final. 10.  On 30 May 2002 the Service paid the penalty in the original amount established in the judgment of 28 February 1997, but not the amounts awarded in the subsequent judgments. 11.  In 2003 the applicant and his grandmother asked the Shakhty Town Court to reconfirm their right to the sums awarded by the judgments of 14 February 2000, 13 August 2001 and 29 March 2002. 12.  On 14 March 2003 the Shakhty Town Court held that the applicant and his grandmother each should receive RUR 52,092.63 (approximately 1,540 euros), representing one half of the amounts awarded by the judgments of 14 February 2000, 13 August 2001 and 29 March 2002. The judgment of 14 March 2003 was not appealed against and became final. 13.  On 20 December 2004 the money due to the applicant and his grandmother under the judgments of 14 February 2000, 13 August 2001 and 29 March 2002, as pronounced by the judgment of 14 March 2003, were paid to them in full. 14.  On 11 May 2004 the Shakhty Town Court accepted the applicant's action against the Service and awarded him a lump sum of RUR 22,341.78 in pension arrears for the period from 1 January 2002 to 31 March 2004 and RUR 3,296.86 in monthly payments. On 26 July 2004 the Rostov Regional Court upheld the judgment. 15.  Enforcement proceedings were instituted and the Service began payment of the monthly pension in the amount established by the judgment of 11 May 2004. The lump sum of pension arrears was not paid. 16.  On 30 June 2005 the Presidium of the Rostov Regional Court, upon an application of the acting President of the Rostov Regional Court and by way of a supervisory review, quashed the judgments of 11 May and 26 July 2004 and remitted the case for a fresh examination. 17.  On 24 November 2005 the Shakhty Town Court granted the action and awarded the applicant RUR 6,120.61 in monthly payments and RUR 198,520.64 in pension arrears for the period from 1 July 2000 to 31 October 2005. On 13 February 2006 the Rostov Regional Court, acting on appeal, increased monthly payments to RUR 7,118.91 and the lump sum of pension arrears to RUR 203,985.37. 18.  Enforcement proceedings were instituted and the Service began payment of monthly pension in the amount awarded by the judgment of 24 November 2005, as amended on 13 February 2006. In May 2006 the lump sum of pension arrears was credited to the applicant's account. 19.  On 11 and 29 June, 23 August and 22 September 2004 the Shakhty Town Court accepted the applicant's actions against the Service for the adjustment of various unrelated judgment awards made in his favour in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2003 and awarded him RUR 720.5 (approximately EUR 21), RUR 16,887.60 (approximately EUR 481), RUR 7,545.76 (approximately EUR 210), RUR 3,627.14 (approximately EUR 101) and RUR 14,475.70 (approximately EUR 403). The judgments were not appealed against and became final. 20.  The judgments were enforced in full on 2 November 2005 when the sums were credited to the applicant's account.