MOSCOW. July 9 (Interfax) - The Public Chamber supports Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin's proposal that rules regulating Russian citizens' dealings with the European Court of Human Rights should be changed.

"I agree with Zorkin's argument that something must be changed - first of all, in order to shield our citizens from court errors and to give them access to an unbiased and fair judiciary at home," Anatoly Kucherena, the chairman of the Public Chamber's Commission for Public Control over Law Enforcement Services and Judiciary Reform, told Interfax on Monday.

"Russian legislation must be supplemented with a provision saying that suits can be filed with the European Court of Human Rights only after the capabilities of the national judiciary have been exhausted," Zorkin told Interfax.

Kucherena said that the quality of the Russian judiciary must be enhanced first.

"One must understand why Russian citizens turn to the Strasbourg Court and who these people are. They are citizens who have not had a fair trial in this country and who are then forced to turn to the European court," he said.