The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the system of secret interception of mobile telephone communications in Russia violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The case was brought by Roman Zakharov, editor-in-chief of a publishing company, who complained that "mobile network operators in Russia were required by law to install equipment enabling law-enforcement agencies to carry out operational-search activities and that, without sufficient safeguards under Russian law, this permitted blanket interception of communications."

Importantly, the ECtHR found that Zakharov was entitled to claim to be a victim of a violation of the ECHR, even though he was unable to allege that he had been the subject of a specific act of surveillance, since those were all secret. Based on "the fact that [the surveillance] affected all users of mobile telephone communications, the Court considered it justified to have examined the relevant legislation not from the point of view of a specific instance of surveillance of which Mr Zakharov had been the victim, but in the abstract."

The ECtHR accepted that Russia's surveillance pursued the legitimate aims of protecting national security and public safety, but given the potential to "undermine or even destroy democracy under the cloak of defending it, the Court had to be satisfied that there were adequate and effective guarantees against abuse." However, the EctHR concluded that the Russian legal provisions governing interception of communications did not provide "adequate and effective guarantees against arbitrariness and the risk of abuse which was inherent in any system of secret surveillance," and noted that this risk was particularly high in Russia.

Specifically, the Court found shortcomings in the following areas: "the circumstances in which public authorities in Russia are empowered to resort to secret surveillance measures; the duration of such measures, notably the circumstances in which they should be discontinued; the procedures for authorising interception as well as for storing and destroying the intercepted data; the supervision of the interception."

Russia was also ordered to pay Zakharov €40,000 (£28,000) for his costs and expenses, but he may not see any of that—despite the fact that Russia has signed up to the ECHR and recognises the ECtHR's decisions. On the same day that the ECtHR handed down its ruling, a vote in the Duma, the lower house in Russia's parliament, passed a law giving the country's constitutional court the right to declare international court orders to be unenforceable in Russia if they contradict the constitution.

Despite that small niggle in Russia, this is still an important ruling because it automatically applies to all of the 47 countries that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. In the UK, for example, today's ruling by the ECtHR could throw a spanner in the works for the revamped Snooper's Charter, which currently calls for a major extension of surveillance powers.

Unless, of course, the British government decides to follow in Russia's footsteps by passing a law that lets it ignore the Court's rulings when they are inconvenient.