th the formal requirements and time-limits laid down in domestic law and further that any procedural means that might prevent a breach of the Convention should have been used. However, there is no obligation to have recourse to remedies which are inadequate or ineffective (see Aksoy v. Turkey, 18 December 1996, §§ 51 - 52, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-VI, and, most recently, Cennet Ayhan and Mehmet Salih Ayhan v. Turkey, No. 41964/98, § 64, 27 June 2006).
72. It is incumbent on the respondent Government claiming non-exhaustion to indicate to the Court with sufficient clarity the remedies to which the applicants have not had recourse and to satisfy the Court that the remedies were effective and available in theory and in practice at the relevant time, that is to say that they were accessible, were capable of providing redress in respect of the applicant's complaints and offered reasonable prospects of success (see Cennet Ayhan and Mehmet Salih Ayhan, cited above, § 65).
73. The Court notes that the Russian legal system provides in principle two avenues of recourse for victims of illegal and criminal acts attributable to the State or its agents, namely civil and criminal remedies.
74. As regards a civil action to obtain redress for damage sustained through the alleged illegal acts or unlawful conduct of State agents, the Court has already found in a number of similar cases that this procedure alone cannot be regarded as an effective remedy in the context of claims brought under Article 2 of the Convention. A civil court is unable to pursue any independent investigation and is incapable, without the benefit of the conclusions of a criminal investigation, of making any meaningful findings regarding the identity of the perpetrators of fatal assaults or disappearances, still less of establishing their responsibility (see Khashiyev and Akayeva v. Russia, Nos. 57942/00 and 57945/00, §§ 119 - 21, 24 February 2005, and Estamirov and Others, cited above, § 77). In the light of the above, the Court confirms that the applicants were not obliged to pursue civil remedies.
75. As regards criminal law remedies provided for by the Russian legal system, the Court observes that the applicants complained to the law-enforcement agencies shortly after the kidnapping of Vakha Saydaliyev and that an investigation has been pending since 6 August 2002. The applicants and the Government dispute the effectiveness of the investigation of the kidnapping.
76. The Court considers that the Government's objection raises issues concerning the effectiveness of the investigation which are closely linked to the merits of the applicants' complaints. Thus, it decides to join this objection to the merits of the case and considers that the issue falls to be examined below.
III. The Court's assessment of the evidence and
the establishment of the facts
A. The parties' arguments
77. The applicants maintained that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the men who had taken away Vakha Saydaliyev were State agents. In support of their complaint they referred to the following facts. The armed men who had abducted Vakha Saydaliyev had Slavic features and spoke Russian without an accent, which proved that they were not of Chechen origin. They had travelled in military vehicles and arrived at the house, in which a considerable number of persons were gathered for a funeral. Several witnesses had stated that Vakha Saydaliyev had been taken away by masked men in military uniforms travelling in two APCs and a Ural vehicle and had been put into the Ural vehicle. The certificate issued by the ROVD on 24 April 2003 had confirmed that the armed men who had abducted Vakha Saydaliyev had been military servicemen carrying out a special operation.
78. The Government submitted that unidentified armed men had kidnapped Vakha Say
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