Asylum Procedures in Russia as a Remedy for Violations of the European Convention on Human Rights

In recent years, the ECHR has issued numerous judgments against Russia stating non-compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights in cases of expulsion of foreign citizens. At the same time, the ECHR began to consider a significant proportion of such complaints under the simplified procedure, which is applied in the event of the same type of violations and the existence of an established practice of the Court. This indicates the existence of systemic problems in the Russian legal system in this area. One of the means of protection against such violations of the ECHR at the national level could be asylum procedures in Russia. The paper sets the task of assessing the effectiveness of asylum procedures in Russia as a remedy for violations of the ECHR, identifying problems of legal regulation and law enforcement practice in this area, as well as developing ways to solve them. The paper builds on the research conducted by the author in the recently published book “Protection in cases of expulsion from the Russian Federation” published in cooperation with the UNHCR. Based on the results of this study, the author concludes that asylum procedures in Russia cannot be unequivocally recognized as effective remedies against violations of Convention rights in the event of expulsion. This is primarily due to the uncertainty of legal regulation and the lack of clear guarantees for the automatic suspensive effect of these procedures in relation to the execution of expulsion decisions. In addition, the author identifies contradictions and inaccuracies in the legal positions of the ECHR, and suggests specific measures to improve Russian legislation and law enforcement practice. Keywords: European Convention on Human Rights; ECHR; European Court of Human Rights; ECHR; European system of human rights protection; expulsion; extradition; removal; deportation; political refuge; refugee status; temporary shelter; effective remedy; automatic suspension effect.

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