Teslenko and Others v. Russia, Nos. 49588/21, 65395/12, 49351/18, ECtHR (Third Section), 5 April 2017

Charges of administrative offence for inviting voters not to stand for election.

Art. 3, Prot. 1 ECHR
Art. 10 ECHR

1. The defendant State had exceeded its margin of discretion insofar as the Russian law had functioned as a barrier to the applicant disseminating content in order to encourage voters to vote in the upcoming elections in a particular way, and had disproportionately limited the very essence of its ability to influence the elections.

2. The defendant State had exceeded its margin of discretion in so far as the applicant was prevented from disseminating during an election period content with the aim of encouraging the electorate to abstain.
(The four applicants were prosecuted for urging voters not to vote for a particular political party, or to abstain from voting in several parliamentary and presidential elections). 

Orlovskaya Iskra v. Russia, No. 42911/08, ECtHR (Third Section), 21 February 2017