Is there life without Strasbourg?

On April 10, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deprived Russia of the right to vote until the end of 2014.

Russia, punished for annexing Crimea, is also prohibited from participating in the governing bodies and observation missions of PACE. (The topic is continued on page 19.) PACE deputies did not go to extreme measures: Russia is not deprived of seats in the Assembly. Nevertheless, the discord between Moscow and Strasbourg is obvious, and in the event of a further deterioration in relations, the Russian Federation may withdraw from the Council of Europe. What do we, Russian citizens, lose in this case?

In search of real justice (in the absence of such in their homeland), our fellow citizens, rich and poor, right or left, are actively turning to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg*. Over the 16 years of its existence, the Strasbourg Court has earned a well-deserved reputation among Russians as an institution where violated rights can be protected or restored. And - to everyone.

If your brother, like, for example, our client Khudobin, became a victim of a provocation with drugs, then Strasbourg recognizes him as a victim of an unfair trial with all the ensuing consequences.

If your friend, like our applicant Vitaly Gladyshev, sentenced to 18 years in a colony in Russia, achieves a decision in Strasbourg in his favor, the Supreme Court of Russia will cancel the verdict and Gladyshev will be fully acquitted when the case is retried.

If your sister or mother, like Svetlana Gladysheva, is a conscientious homebuyer, who, according to the decision of the Russian courts, had to “sweep out” with her whole family and property into the street (!!!), after winning in Strasbourg, she completely restored her rights, so Dozens of Russian applicants in similar cases are seeking the restoration of their property rights!

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The very fact of the existence of the Strasbourg Court serves as a defense against arbitrariness

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If your lazy son takes it into his head to drive stolen cars with his friends (like teenage applicants A. and B. from Moscow), and after interrogations and insistent demands of the investigator, at the same time admits 37 unsolved thefts, and at the same time the explosion on Pushkinskaya Square, he will come out with a broken spine and a broken fate, and the good aunt-prosecutor from the Kuntsevskaya prosecutor's office will refuse to initiate a criminal case on the fact of torture, and the good aunt-judge will yell, and even take him into custody so that he doesn’t spin tales about some kind of torture ... - then the ECtHR, on the contrary, on the basis of simple evidence, recognizes him as a victim of torture and will exact from the state the amount of fair compensation for the suffering and expenses incurred.

However, for the time being it will seem to you that these and other similar misfortunes will never touch you and your loved ones. But this is only a feature of human carelessness, and life shows that trouble falls on the heads of those who are ready for this, and even worse on those who are completely unprepared for this.

Of course, the European Court cannot replace Russia's dormant justice system. But the very potential opportunity to apply there in hundreds and even in thousands of cases allowed the Russians to demand that the prosecutor's office, investigative and judicial bodies observe constitutional rights - and achieve success in this matter. The very fact of the existence of the Strasbourg Court often served as a defense against arbitrariness, abuse and other forms of violations.

And if Russia withdraws from the Council of Europe, and hence from the jurisdiction of the European Court, then part of our ruling elite will undoubtedly rejoice, because how many times have we heard their lamentations from the highest tribunes - they say, “we pay them (Europeans) (contributions for membership) and they beat us all the time.” But our fellow citizens will be left face to face with arbitrariness.