Victory in Strasbourg

The Republican Party of Russia, liquidated in 2007, is celebrating its victory over the modern Russian political system. The European Court of Human Rights found the decision to liquidate the party to be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely Article 11 on freedom of assembly and association.

According to the decision of the Russian Supreme Court, which liquidated the party, the Republicans allegedly did not comply with the law on political parties. This was explained by the fact that the party supposedly has not 50 thousand members, as required by law, but 39 and a half thousand, and branches in the regions are not 45, but 33. Meanwhile, the co-chairman of the party, Vladimir Ryzhkov, is now the co-chairman of the party that has not yet submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice People's Freedom Party reported that the party consisted of 60 thousand people and all their statements were submitted, and there were 54 branches.

The press release of the European Court on the current verdict states, in particular, that “the court was shocked by the fact that justification for the requirement to submit the same set of documents as for the registration of a recently founded political party relied on one of the clauses of the law on non-profit organizations, which came into force after the ministry refused to make changes to the register,” the Kommersant press release quotes. The court found that there was not a “sufficiently clear legal basis” for the liquidation of the party, which in itself is a violation of this article of the European Convention.

The Russian authorities explained to the court that “limiting the number of parties was necessary in order to avoid disproportionate expenditures in the budget”, as well as in order to “avoid excessive fragmentation of the parliament, since this goal had already been achieved by the 7% threshold.” The court was not convinced by these arguments. The authorities argued that the “Republicans” do not have the right to party status because they do not “represent the interests of a significant part of society.” This argument prompted an objection from the European Court: “small groups should also have the right to form parties and participate in elections,” the ECHR decision said.

The European Court concluded that “the need to bring membership numbers into line with domestic laws, as well as constant reviews of the membership situation, have placed a disproportionate burden on parties in Russia.” “Such frequent changes in electoral legislation can be regarded, rightly or wrongly, as an attempt to manipulate election laws in favor of the party in power,” this very important and not very pleasant conclusion for the Russian authorities is given in the text of the press release.

According to the decision of Strasbourg, the Russian state must pay the Republican Party 6,950 euros. The state, apparently, having studied the documents, will file a complaint with the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.

United Russia believes that the ECHR decision does not mean that Russian legislation on parties should be changed in any way. Kommersant cites a wonderful statement from the head of the party’s public council, Alexei Chesnakov, according to whom “what is more important for Russia now is the development of large and strong parties, rather than the competition of critters that cease to exist before the start of the next election campaign.” Let us remind you that the Republican Party was created back in 1990, so who else is the hotshot here is a big question. We all remember how Unity, which later became United Russia, was created during the 1999 elections.

The Russian representative on the panel that decided on the fate of the Republican Party, Judge Anatoly Kovler, expressed a “partially dissenting opinion.”