Cost of Expulsion, Dissent and Human Rights in Russia

With Russia outside the Council of Europe, the possibilities for successful litigation against the state by Russian citizens have become limited. In more ways than one, Russians made the Strasbourg court their own. Russia was among the states with the most applications against it. At the same time, victims of Russia’s abuses, dissenters, and human rights defenders were among the ECtHR’s main beneficiaries. Despite Russia’s mixed record of compliance, the Court provided a singular avenue for accountability, and served as a catalyst for domestic mobilization. Expulsion appears to have accelerated authoritarian decline. Although it is hard to know how much stronger respect for human rights would have been had Russia remained, in the absence of European Court, human rights in Russia face massive challenges. The cost of expulsion raises questions about how human rights institutions should balance institutional legitimacy and condemnation of states with responsibility to the people living within them.