Telegram and Internet providers complained to the European Council for restricting the right to private life and the secret of correspondence in Russia

The international human rights group "Agora", Telegram Messenger LLP and the unification of alternative communication operators sent to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (KMSU) a memorandum, which states that the Russian authorities do not fulfill the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), adopted in the case "Roman Zakharov against Russia", but, by the contrary, was also taken by a series steps aimed at a serious restriction of the right to respect a private life and the secret of correspondence, spreading the system of constant direct control of telephone conversations for all Internet communication.

As the Vedomosti resembles, we are talking about the lawsuit filed in the ECHR by the head of the Center for the Center for the Protection Fund for Viewing in St. Petersburg Roman Zakharov. He complained that Russian legislation obliges mobile operators to install technical equipment to ensure the functions of operational-search measures on power supply networks (the so-called SORM-2). In 2015, the ECHR came to the conclusion that Russian laws do not protect citizens from unauthorized wiretap, but since then, according to the authors of the memorandum, the country's authorities have not revised the system of admission of special services to negotiations of citizens.

"Creation of new mechanisms of storage, processing and intercepting all types of Internet traffic within the framework of SORM," package of spring "and regulatory legal acts, undertaken by the Russian authorities in recent years, represents the further development of the system of indelible and controlled by the society of mass surveillance, which directly contradicts both international law as a whole and the decision of the ECHR in the case of" Roman Zakharov against Russia, "----- It is said in the memorandum.

Telegram and providers ask the kmce to draw the attention of the Russian authorities to the need to cancel the “Yarovaya Package” and the need to strengthen the responsibility of communication operators and Internet services for observing human rights. The memorandum also refers to the legislative consolidation of the obligation for companies to publish detailed reports on the quantities of appeals of state bodies and individuals related to the restriction of access to content, as well as the quantities of requests from state bodies to disclose user information.

In addition, the authors of the Memorandum are asked to indicate the need to abandon interception technology that allows law enforcement officers to have constant direct access to all telephone conversations and Internet communications of all users, as well as accept amendments on the basis of which access to correspondence will be provided by operators only on the basis of a court decision. Finally, the appeal says about the need to formulate a requirement for a mandatory preliminary public discussion of all accepted norms that limit the digital rights of citizens.

In the summer of this year, the Government of the Russian Federation sent a plan for the implementation of the ECHR resolution in the CCMS, but it list only minor amendments to the legislation, which do not provide for the correction of the fundamental deficiencies marked by the ECHR, including the availability of technical ability to intercept any messages without obtaining preliminary court permission.

However, the Ministry of Justice noted that the report on the implementation of the decision of the ECHR was considered at the COMS meeting in September, and the steps taken by the authorities were appreciated positively. "The Russian authorities are invited to inform the committee on their further practical implementation, including the work on making changes to the legislation taking into account the legal positions of the ECHR," the press service of the department said.

As the head of the Agora, Pavel Chikov noted, the decision in the case of Zakharov is considered unfulfilled and that is why it was transferred to the COMS to launch the procedure for interacting with the Russian authorities. The meaning of the Memorandum directed in the CCS, according to Chikov, is to exert additional pressure on the Government of the Russian Federation. The human rights activist hopes that the authorities will have to answer questions posed in the memorandum.