The Strabourg court said it was not open to a state authority to "cite lack of funds as an excuse for not honouring a judgment."

Mikhail Kukalo, 64, had successfully contested the amount of his monthly pension payment in 1999 but had received no increase for the following two years and two months, the court said.

Kukalo, whose health was damaged after taking part in emergency operations at the Chernobyl disaster, is a Russian who was working in Ukraine where the catastrophe occurred.

He now lives in Russia, which has responsibility for his pension.

The court noted that the judgments in question were not enforced for long periods of time, a situation for which the Russian government had not provided any plausible justification.

A number of Russian judgments had been delivered in his favour which in one case, took over two years and two months to enforce.

The court awarded Kukalo 3,000 euros in damages for non-execution of the earlier Russian court orders which the Strasbourg court said violated articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to a fair hearing.

The explosion on April 26, 1986, of the number four reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine sent a radioactive cloud across Europe in the worst nuclear accident in history.

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