Telegram and Internet providers complained about Russia’s failure to comply with the ECHR decision

The Russian authorities not only failed to comply with the ECHR decision adopted in 2015 in the case of Roman Zakharov v. Russia, but also further limited privacy and the secrecy of correspondence over the past three years, follows from a memorandum of the Agora International Human Rights Group, the Telegram company and Association of alternative telecom operators, sent to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE).

Read more. In a 2015 decision, the ECHR declared illegal the SORM-2 system, with the help of which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB randomly listen to telephone conversations of subscribers of the Big Three operators.

• But since then, the situation with the interception of messages has only worsened , the memorandum notes. In 2016, the “Yarovaya package” was adopted, which obliges operators to store all kinds of audio and video messages and user conversations for six months, and Internet messages for 30 days. The authors of the memorandum ask the CMCE to draw the attention of the Russian government to the need to repeal this law.
• The authors also ask that the Russian authorities be advised to change the interception technology, which provides intelligence agencies with direct access to telephone and Internet communications. The government should introduce an amendment to gain access to user data only with judicial permission, the authors of the document believe. Finally, all innovations that relate to restricting the rights of citizens in the digital environment must undergo public discussion, the document says.
• The purpose of the appeal is to put additional pressure on the Russian authorities, said the head of Agora, Pavel Chikov.

Liana Faizova