Fedotova and Others v. Russia

[2] By this time, Russia had already been expelled by the Council of Europe due to the invasion of Ukraine and had ceased to be part of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[1][7] The Third Chamber ruled on 13 July 2021 that Russia "had an obligation to ensure respect for the applicants' private and family life by providing a legal framework allowing them to have their relationships acknowledged," and it rejected the Russian government's argument about public disapproval of same-sex unions, finding that "access to rights for a minority could not be dependent on the acceptance of the majority.

[9][12] However, in 2022, Russia, having been expelled from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[13] ceased to be a party to the ECHR on 16 September 2022 in accordance with article 58.

[14] At Oxford Human Rights Hub, Stephanos Stavros commented that the judgement "appears to capitalise on the respondent Government's reluctance to mount a real defence" and hypothesizes that it might represent a return to a more activist approach by the court.

[17] Natalia Zviagina, director of Amnesty International's Moscow office, said that the "landmark decision underlines that the Russian government is on the wrong side of history".