VLADIMIR KHARITONOV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
In the case of Vladimir Kharitonov v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a
Chamber composed of:
Paul Lemmens, President,
Georgios A. Serghides,
Helen Keller,
Dmitry Dedov,
Alena Poláčková,
Lorraine Schembri Orland,
Ana Maria Guerra Martins, judges,
and Milan Blaško, Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court
under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Russian national,
Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Kharitonov (“the applicant”), on 27 December
2013;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Russian Government
(“the Government”);
the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the
observations in reply submitted by the applicant;
the comments submitted by third-party interveners which were granted
leave to intervene by the President of the Section;
Having deliberated in private on 26 May 2020,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
INTRODUCTION
The case concerns the blocking of access to the applicant’s website as a
consequence of a blocking order against another website which had the
same IP address as the applicant’s website.
THE FACTS
1. The applicant was born in 1969 and lives in Moscow. He was
represented by Mr D. Gaynutdinov, a lawyer admitted to practice in Russia.
2. The Government were represented initially by Mr A. Fedorov, head of
the office of the Representative of the Russian Federation to the European
Court of Human Rights, and then by Mr M. Galperin, the Representative.
3. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised
as follows.
4. The applicant is the executive director of the Association of
Electronic Publishers, a non-commercial partnership, and co-founder of the
Association of Internet Users, a non-governmental organisation. He is the
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