The ECHR ruled on Kirkorov’s complaint against a travel ban to Lithuania

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MOSCOW, April 18 The Strasbourg court rejected the complaint of the Russian singer Philip Kirkorov about the ban on traveling to Lithuania, according to a press release from the authority, which was received by.
““In its decision in the “case of Kirkorov v. Lithuania” (No. 12174/22), the European Court of Human Rights, by a majority vote, declared the complaint inadmissible. The decision is final,” the document says.

ECtHR considers that “the Lithuanian authorities’ assessment based on the applicant’s statements and conduct was not arbitrary or unreasonable.”

“In particular, the applicant openly stated that he supported Russia’s actions in the Crimean peninsula, and called himself “a representative of Vladimir Putin on stage,” the decision states.
It also notes that the courts weighed the interests of national security and public order against actions of Kirkorov and the ban imposed on him and “they did not consider it disproportionate
.”The singer’s complaint itself concerned a ban on his entry into Lithuania, “since (the authorities – editor’s note) considered him a threat to national security.” Vilnius allegedly established that Kirkorov “was an instrument of Russian propaganda in the states of the former USSR and that, by regularly giving concerts in Crimea, he supported its aggressive policy.”

In 2021, Lithuanian migration authorities decided to impose a five-year entry ban on Philip Kirkorov.

On March 15, 2022, Russia officially notified by note that it was withdrawing from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, declaring that it would implement the decisions of the ECHR if they were in accordance with its constitution. Later that same day, PACE unanimously adopted a resolution in which it indicated to the Council's statutory body, the Committee of Ministers, that Moscow could not be a member of the Council. The next day, the Committee of Ministers decided that Russia would cease to be a member of the organization as of March 16.
The ECHR stated that the court has jurisdiction to consider complaints against Moscow for violation of the convention in relation to acts committed before September 16, 2022.