MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The Higher Judicial Qualifications Board (HJQB) unanimously recommended on Monday that Russian Supreme Court Deputy Chair Irina Podnosova be appointed to the position of chairwoman of the high court, a TASS correspondent reports.

"The Higher Judicial Qualifications Board has unanimously resolved to recommend [Deputy Chair] Podnosova for the post of chairwoman of the Russian Supreme Court," HJQB Chairman Nikolay Timoshin said in announcing the decision.

Irina Podnosova was born in Pskov. In 1975, she graduated from the Law Faculty of A.A. Zhdanov Leningrad State University. In 1990, after 15 years working as a lawyer in Leningrad and the Saratov Region, she was appointed to the bench to serve as a judge of the Municipal Court of Luzhsky District, Leningrad Region. In 2003 she became chair of the Luzhsky District Municipal Court. In 2013 she was named deputy chair of the Leningrad Regional Court, and then as chair of the same court in 2017. Since 2018, she headed the Second Appellate Court of General Jurisdiction, which was established as part of the reform of Russian general jurisdiction courts. On July 24, 2020, she was appointed as deputy chair of the Russian Supreme Court and chair of the Judicial Collegium for Economic Disputes by the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.

The post of chairman of the Russian Supreme Court has become vacant since Vyacheslav Lebedev died on February 23, after heading the country’s highest court since 1989. On March 1, the Higher Judicial Qualifications Board announced the opening of the vacant position of chairman of the Supreme Court, for which nominations were accepted up until March 22.