Mariia Novikova

Mariia Novikova is a human rights lawyer, Master of Law in Criminal Proceeding (SpbU’21). She is a research graduate master-student at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in France. Mariia works as a lawyer specialising in applications to the ECHR in OVD-info (HRC Memorial). She also conducts webinars on legal topics for activists in Russia.

13/10/2022

The European Court of Human Rights issues a long-awaited judgment on Russia’s ‘foreign agents’ law: expectations and reality

In early June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Ecodefence and Others v. Russia – a decision which representatives of 73 Russian non-governmental organisations had been expecting for nine years. The Court has finally recognised that the Russian Foreign Agents Act violates Article 11 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i. e. the rights to freedom of assembly and association, and the Russian government’s application of the ‘foreign agent’ concept is arbitrary.