Since the Russian Federation ceased to be a party to the ECHR on 16 September 2022 (→ eucrim 3/2022, 199), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled in a number of cases. In a background brief of 3 February 2023, the Registrar of the Court set out some guiding procedural principles for the future handling of cases against Russia that fall within the Court's jurisdiction:

• The ECtHR is competent to deal with cases concerning acts or omissions that took place before 16 September 2022, the date on which Russia ceased to be a party to the ECHR (Fedotova and Others v. Russia; Kutayev v. Russia; Svetova and Others v. Russia);
• Given that the office of the Russian ECtHR judge has ended, the Court will appoint an ad hoc judge from among the sitting judges to examine the cases lodged against Russia within its jurisdiction (Kutayev v. Russia and Svetova and Others v. Russia; Grand Chamber decision Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia);
• The Court may proceed with the examination of applications even though the Russian authorities do not cooperate with it, for example by not submitting written observations, as in the case of Svetova and Others v. Russia. This does not, however, automatically lead to acceptance of an applicant’s claims.

On 1 February 2023, 16,730 applications lodged against Russia were pending before a decision body. There are also eight inter-State cases pending against Russia, which remain a top priority for the Court.