MOSCOW, December 22 - RAPSI. Independent examination commissions will soon be established in Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev said during his annual state of the union address on Thursday. The commissions will be responsible for examining judge applicants.

"We will continue to reform our judicial manpower. An important step forward on this path is to establish an independent judicial examination commission system that will examine all the applicants for the position of judge," Medvedev said.

He added that the number of judges per capita in Russia is the same as in most European countries. However, the workload of Russian judges is more than their European colleagues', the president said.