VLADIMIR KHARITONOV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION JOINT CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGES LEMMENS, DEDOV AND POLÁČKOVÁ 1. We fully concur with our esteemed colleagues in finding violations of Articles 10 and 13 of the Convention. We would, however, have preferred a different reasoning under Article 10. Like our colleagues, we are of the opinion that the interference with the applicant’s right to freedom of expression was not “prescribed by law”. But unlike our colleagues, we believe that this is so because the interference had no basis in domestic law, not because the law did not satisfy the foreseeability requirement. This issue is not a merely theoretical one. As we will try to explain, the approach adopted has a bearing on the kind of measures that will be required for proper execution of the present judgment. 2. The interference in this case was a blocking measure directed against the website “www.rastaman.tales.ru” (the “Rastaman Tales website”). The applicant’s website was a different one (www.digital-books.ru), but both websites were hosted on the same server and had the same IP address. When the Federal Drug Control Service asked Roskomnadzor to block access to the Rastaman Tales website, Roskomnadzor put the latter’s IP address on the register of blacklisted websites. The result was that access was blocked, not only to the Rastaman Tales website, but also to all other websites using the same IP address, including the applicant’s. This is therefore a case of the unintended blocking of a website due to the method chosen to block another, specifically targeted, website. 3. The impugned measure was based on section 15.1, subsection 5(1), of the Information Act. According to this provision, a website can be blocked by a decision of a federal executive body (in this case the Federal Drug Control Service) if it contains materials listed in that provision (in this case information relating to the manufacture and the use of narcotics). Roskomnadzor is responsible for implementing such decisions. It is clear that Roskomnadzor used a wholly inadequate method to block access to the Rastaman Tales website. The question is whether this was the result of section 15.1, subsection 5(1), being insufficiently foreseeable in its effects, or whether Roskomnadzor exceeded the limits of what was permissible under the law. In the first case, the law would not be of the required quality; in the second case, the interference would not have a basis in the law. 4. Our esteemed colleagues are of the opinion that the Information Act did not require Roskomnadzor to check whether the IP address was used by more than one website or to establish the need for blocking by IP address (see paragraph 41 of the judgment). They further argue that “because of the great latitude” the Act afforded to Roskomnadzor in blocking matters, making it possible for the latter to block a website merely on account of an incidental connection at the infrastructure level with another website, the 19