As it follows from the release and the decision of the European Court of Human Rights on April 18, the ECHR declared the application inadmissible in the case of Kirkorov v. Lithuania (Filip Bedros Kirkorov against Lithuania, 12174/22).
The case concerned the ban on the applicant, “a popular singer and music producer in Russia”, from entering Lithuania because he was considered a threat to national security, and was it filed literally on the eve of large-scale Russian aggression.
Lithuanian authorities established that Kirkorov was an instrument of Russian propaganda in the states of the former USSR and that, by regularly giving concerts in occupied Crimea, he supported the aggressive policies of the Russian state.
The Court found that the Lithuanian authorities’ assessment based on the applicant’s statements and thet their conduct was not arbitrary or unreasonable.
In particular, the decision says, the applicant openly stated that he supports the actions of Russian on the Crimean Peninsula, and called himself “Vladimir Putin’s representative on stage”.
Moreover, the ECtHR recognized that the national courts of Lithuania compared the interests of national security and public order with the actions of the applicant and the ban imposed on him and Court did not consider it disproportionate. This Court’s decision became a significant precedent for the international court on the practice of non-recognition of the attempted annexation of the Crimea and of the illegality and public danger of supporting the occupation of the peninsula.
