The ECHR communicated complaints about the blocking of Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru and three other sites

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has communicated complaints about the blocking of five Russian websites: Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru, EZh.ru, Roskomsvoboda and Worldview of Russian Civilization. This was reported on September 15 by Kommersant.

The ECtHR combined the five complaints into one case because they raise similar issues and turned to Russia with a number of questions. For example, whether the norms of Russian legislation on blocking are “sufficiently precise and predictable in their application” and “do they provide a sufficient degree of protection against arbitrariness”. The authorities are required to respond by January 15, 2018, Kommersant reports.

The interests of the sites are represented in court by the lawyers of the Roskomsvoboda project and the Agora International Human Rights Group.

“The ECtHR is considering cases of blocking websites in Russia for the first time. This topic has not been particularly raised before, there were two Turkish lawsuits, and that's it. Therefore, our deeds will set standards for the whole of Europe,” told the publication. Agora analyst Damir Gainutdinov

Roskomnadzor blocked the websites Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru and EZH.ru on March 13, 2014. The Prosecutor General said that the sites published information about public events held in violation of the order.

Access to the Roskomsvoboda website has been closed since February 2016. The Anapa City Court recognized the information about anonymizers and ways to bypass blocking on the Internet, which was published on the site, as prohibited.

Worldview of Russian Civilization was blocked in 2012 due to the publication of a book that was on the list of extremist materials. Despite the fact that the book was removed, the site was not unblocked.