The ECHR found the blocking of three websites by Roskomnadzor illegal and awarded compensation

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on three complaints about the blocking of Roskomnadzor. The head of Agora International Human Rights Group Pavel Chikov publishes detailed comments by Agora legal analyst Damir Gainutdinov.

The ECtHR ruled on the complaints of Vladimir Kharitonov , Garry Kasparov and the owners of the website Grani.ru .

Kharitonov's Internet library http://digital-books.ru/ was blocked in 2012 due to the fact that it was located on the same IP address as the http://rastamantales.ru resource , which, in turn, was blocked because of alleged drug propaganda.

In the publications of the Kasparov.ru and Grani.ru websites, the Prosecutor General's Office saw the "organization and coverage of mass events held in violation of the law", and in 2014 the sites were blocked under the "Lugovoy law", which allows the prosecutor's office to demand the blocking of Internet sites with appeals to riots, extremism and uncoordinated protests.

Thus, the Kasparov.ru website was blocked in connection with the material “State property will be nationalized in Crimea” and illustrations to it, allegedly inciting Crimeans to commit illegal acts. The Grani.ru website was blocked in connection with the coverage of actions in support of the participants in the Bolotnaya case - the authorities saw in these publications calls for "expressing a civil position without observing the procedure for holding events established by law."

Damir Gaynutdinov noted that site owners were not informed about the reasons for blocking and thus were not given the opportunity to remove from publication texts in which officials saw violations.

The ECHR ruled that in all three cases Russia violated the articles of the European Convention on freedom of expression (Article 10) and on the right to an effective remedy (Article 13), and awarded compensation of 10 thousand euros to the director of the Association of Internet Publishers and the founders Kasparov.ru and Grani.ru websites. The director of the Association of Internet Publishers was also appointed two thousand euros on account of legal costs.