Russia, despite its expulsion from the Council of Europe, continues to show interest in proceedings against it in the European Court of Human Rights, even though it publicly claims otherwise.

Marharyta Sokorenko, Ukraine's authorised representative to the ECHR, reminded in an interview with European Pravda that after Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe in March 2022 due to the war against Ukraine, they demonstratively stated that they would not participate in any EHCR proceedings and stopped responding to letters from the court and the Committee of Ministers of the CoE.

"However, despite Russia's constant statements that it has not communicated with Strasbourg since March, it turned out to be untrue. On April 1 or 2, 2022, they sent their package of documents in the case 'Russia against Ukraine' (which Russia has already lost. – EP).

After that, they indeed stopped sending anything to the Court. However, I am sure that they have not stopped reading the Court's documents. Because the Court continues to send them everything," said the authorised representative of the Ministry of Justice.

She revealed that Russia still has access to a special secure website for exchanging documents between the ECHR and each state, and there are other reasonable grounds to believe that Moscow is monitoring all proceedings.

When European Pravda asked about the resemblance to "peeking through a crack," Sokorenko noted that "the crack is very large. They have the opportunity to see everything."

The European Court of Human Rights continues considering lawsuits against Russia despite its expulsion from the Council of Europe shortly after the full-scale invasion.

Sokorenko also mentioend in the interview Ukraine's expectations from the new hearings on the Crimea case and its significance for other cases.