4.  The applicant was born in 1950 and lives in Elista, the Kalmyk Republic. 5.  In the 1980s he took part in a rescue operation on the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 6.  As of late 1996 the applicant has been in receipt of social benefits in this connection. 7.  In June 1999 he brought a civil action against the Pension Fund of Elista because it had wrongly calculated his pension. 8.  On 26 August 1999 the Elista Town Court dismissed the action. 9.  On 25 November 1999 the Supreme Court of the Kalmyk Republic examined the applicant’s appeal, quashed the judgment of 26 August 1999 and ordered the pension authority to:
“calculate the [applicant’s] pension based on the salary which he [had] received during his work in [Chernobyl], in the new circumstances, with regard to the salary which he [had] received on his main job, under conversion rates of 6.7 and 6 for the period established in Article 208 of the Civil Code.” 10.  On 27 January 2000, the Supreme Court supplemented its judgment of 25 November 1999 with an order to:
“recalculate the [applicant’s] pension for the period from 11 November 1997 to 25 November 1999, to pay the [applicant] the difference between the recalculated pension and the pension actually paid, and to increase the average salary, on the basis of which the pension [was] to be calculated, not only by the conversion rates of 6.7 and 6, but also by the minimum pension increments in accordance with section 11-3 of the Rules on Compensation.” 11.  Both decisions came into force immediately. 12.  According to the applicant, the judgment translated into a monthly payment of 8,137.91 roubles (“RUR”, approximately 284 euros, “EUR”). 13.  The authorities failed to execute the judgment. 14.  Between July 2000 and April 2001 the applicant complained about the non-execution to a number of authorities. 15.  The authorities replied that the pension had been recalculated, but it could not actually be paid because the Ministry of Finance had allocated no money for this purpose. 16.  The arrears of RUR 513,407.62 (approximately EUR 15,126) due to the applicant were transferred to him by two instalments on 29 January and 25 April 2002 respectively.