24 COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 81. The Court considers, in the light of the parties’ submissions, that the above complaint under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and Article 13 of the Convention raise serious issues of fact and law under the Convention, the determination of which requires an examination of the merits. The Court therefore concludes that these complaints should be declared admissible. B. Merits 1. Article 13 of the Convention 82. The Court reiterates, having regard to the parties’ submissions which are summarised above, in paragraphs 60 et seq. and 72 et seq., that “the scope of the Contracting States’ obligations under Article 13 varies depending on the nature of the applicant’s complaint; ... the remedy must be effective in practice as well as in law in the sense either of preventing the alleged violation or remedying the impugned state of affairs, or of providing adequate redress for any violation that has already occurred” (see Petkov and Others v. Bulgaria, nos. 77568/01, 178/02 and 505/02, § 74, 11 June 2009). The Court also reiterates that “although no single remedy may itself entirely satisfy the requirements of Article 13, the aggregate of remedies provided for under domestic law may do so” (see Kudła v. Poland [GC], no. 30210/96, § 157, ECHR 2000-XI). 83. The first question is what sort of remedy could be effective in view of the “nature of the applicants’ complaint”. The Court stresses that the applicants complained not of one or several isolated cases of unlawful campaigning, but of the entire media policy of five broadcasters over a period of three months. Having regard to the magnitude of the problem, the Court is not convinced that the remedies used by the applicants during the electoral campaign were sufficient to address it. Be that as it may, the Court does not need to take a definite stand on this matter. The Court has to examine whether other remedies existing in Russian law, in particular the ex post facto remedies, were capable of addressing the applicants’ grievances. 84. The Court observes that the applicants tried to have the results of the elections invalidated by challenging CEC Decree No. 72/620-4 before the Supreme Court (see paragraphs 32 et seq. above). The Government did not deny that it had been within the powers of the Supreme Court to annul the results of the elections if it had detected serious breaches of electoral law, including those related to the alleged unlawful campaigning. Moreover, the Government referred to a case which demonstrated that such a remedy existed in Russian law and had been successfully used at least once (see paragraph 66 above). The Court concludes that the applicants had access to a legal remedy capable of satisfying their claim, at least in theory.

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