ECHR again puts off consideration of Ukraine vs. Russia lawsuits

The European Court of Human Rights has extended the timeline to provide explanation of Russia for its actions concerning annexation of Crimea and aggression in Donbas until December 31.

Government Commissioner for the ECHR Borys Babin said this in an interview with the Ukrayinsky Novyny (Ukrainian News) news website.

“We think that this may be not the ‘last request’ of Russia to postpone the matter. They have one concern, and it’s very simple – Russia will try to delay consideration of the case to the last. After all, they won’t be able to win it. The rulers of Russia may expect they will be able to seize all of Ukraine fully and close this issue in international bodies, or, perhaps, they have some other hopes,” he said.

Babin added that Ukraine, in turn, would insist on the need for urgent interlocutory judgments at least at the initial stage of the cases.

According to him, there are more than 500 private complaints apart from three state lawsuits against Russia. The expert believes that the results of these cases can be expected in 2-5 years. Babin also notes that the European Court has put off the consideration of these cases, hoping that the situation in Ukraine will be resolved.

“They’ve just now started to realize that this is not some sort of a temporary action, it will take much time,” Babin added.