OOO MEMO v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
In the case of OOO Memo v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a
Chamber composed of:
Georges Ravarani, President,
Georgios A. Serghides,
Darian Pavli,
Peeter Roosma,
Andreas Zünd,
Frédéric Krenc,
Mikhail Lobov, judges,
and Milan Blaško, Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 2840/10) 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 OOO Memo, a
legal entity under the Russian law (“the applicant company”), on
24 December 2009;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Russian Government
(“the Government”);
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 25 January 2022,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
INTRODUCTION
1. The case concerns civil defamation proceedings brought by the
Administration of the Volgograd Region against an Internet media outlet
following the publication of an interview with a third party.
THE FACTS
2. The applicant company is a legal entity under the Russian law. It was
represented by Ms A. Soboleva, a lawyer practising in Moscow.
3. The Government were initially represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, the
then Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of
Human Rights, and lately by Mr M. Vinogradov, his successor in that office.
4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised
as follows.
I. BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
5. The applicant company is the founder of Kavkazskiy Uzel
(«Кавказский узел», “The Knot of the Caucasus”), an online media outlet
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