Russia's Inter-State ECHR Complaint Against Ukraine Was Last Resort Measure, Diplomat Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's inter-state complaint against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights was a last resort measure that came out of careful consideration, and Moscow believes it could take the ECHR over a year to deliver is verdict, the Foreign Ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights, Grigory Lukyantsev, said on 30 August.

On 22 July, Russia filed its first inter-state complaint with the ECHR in Strasbourg, France, against Ukraine. In the document focusing on the events that followed the 2014 change of power in Ukraine, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office accuses Kiev of violating the European Convention on Human Rights.

"The Russian Federation took this step deliberately, it was well-judged. Preparations took quite a long time. At the same time, we can say this was in general a last-ditch measure, since it is known that Russia has not appealed to international bodies before. This is Russia's first inter-state complaint filed with the ECHR", Lukyantsev said.

According to the diplomat, the factors that forced Russia to take this step "are out in the open".

"The situation with the observance of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine is generally well known. The position of the Russian Foreign Ministry on this issue is also well known, as both the Russian foreign minister and the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry have repeatedly made statements pointing to ... a large-scale and systematic violation of human rights taking place in Ukraine", Lukyantsev added.

The United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Council of Europe have not reacted to Russia's concerns, the Foreign Ministry official went on to say.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive any intelligible reaction from them; while Ukraine categorically refuses to recognise the fact of any violations despite the conclusions of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on a number of laws that were recently adopted in Ukraine; despite the completely outrageous cases related to the death of people on Maidan; despite the completely obvious outrageous facts of the death of people in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on 2 May [2014]; despite the seizures and violence against representatives of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine; despite the bans on the entry and activities of representatives of the Russian media, journalists, and politicians; despite the death of people as a result of the counter-terrorist operation in the so-called southeast of Ukraine", Lukyantsev added.

The diplomat finds its difficult to make any predictions regarding the timeframe for the ECHR's consideration of the matter.

"Obviously, this will take more than a year, as the ECHR has several lawsuits against the Russian Federation, the ECHR has thousands of individual lawsuits related to the same events, which are the subject of both Ukraine's ECHR suits and the Russian suit. The court should make a decision. It usually prioritises consideration of inter-state complaints prior to individual claims. So let us wait for the results", Lukyantsev specified.

Lukyantsev emphasised that Ukraine could lose its membership in the Council of Europe if the claim is satisfied.