4.  The applicant was born in 1945 and lives in Pechora, the Komi Republic. 5.  The applicant sued the Municipal Unitary Enterprise for Housing and Communal Services (MUP Pechorazhilkomhoz or MUP PZHKH – МУП Печоражилкомхоз – hereafter “the company”) of Pechora, the Komi Republic, for salary arrears. 6.  On 31 May 2007 the Justice of the Peace of the Privokzalnyy Court Circuit of Pechora awarded the applicant the equivalent of 18,358 euros (EUR) of the salary owed to him for the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006. The judgment became final ten days later. 7.  On 12 January 2009 the Pechora Town Court granted another claim which the applicant had lodged against the company, awarding him EUR 592. The judgment became final ten days later. 8.  Neither judgment has been enforced. 9.  The company was incorporated as a municipal unitary enterprise. It was set up by a decision of the local administration to provide heating supply and housing maintenance services in the local area. The company had “the right of economic control” (право хозяйственного ведения) over the assets allocated to it by the administration in order to carry out its statutory activities. 10.  In 2006 the owner (the local administration) withdrew several of the company’s assets and transferred them either to the local treasury or to other legal entities. 11.  On 17 January 2007 the respondent company was declared insolvent and liquidation proceedings started. 12.  The company sued the owner in subsidiary liability proceedings. On 13 May 2009 the Commercial Court of the Komi Republic dismissed that action, having found that the owner had acted without intending to cause the company’s insolvency when transferring the assets. 13.  On 16 June 2009 the company was liquidated. 14.  The applicant brought subsidiary liability proceedings against the owner before the Pechora Town Court, arguing, inter alia, that the company’s insolvency had been premeditated. On 21 June 2012 the court dismissed the applicant’s claim against the owner as unfounded. On 3 September 2012 the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic upheld that decision.