In her article AGP lawyer Olga Zelenskaya analyzes the dualistic nature of judicial discretion as court’s duty to safeguard procedural rights of the parties to legal proceedings and as court’s power to apply a legal provision changing its common interpretation for the sake of ascertaining the objective truth. The author also discusses the opinions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Arbitrazh Court of Russia regarding the extent of judge’s responsibility for adverse outcome of judicial discretion misapplied.