Andrei Aryupin said he had lodged the complaint with the Strasbourg Court when the Estonian authorities had refused to extend a residence permit for his client, Nikolai Mykolenko, and put him into a camp for internally displaced persons pending deportation.
Mykolenko, who has been living in Estonia for the past two decades, was offered a $25,000 voucher to buy an apartment in Moscow as part of a U.S.-Russian scheme launched in the 1990s to assist the withdrawal of Russian troops from the post-Soviet Baltic country. In exchange, he pledged to leave for his native Russia, but has thus far failed to do so.
Aryupin said he and he client were considering their next step.
"We care currently studying the European court's ruling and I cannot yet talk about [any] further actions," he said. "I will meet with Mykolenko soon and we will decide what to do next. Theoretically, there is still the possibility of applying to the UN committee on human rights."
Moscow has repeatedly criticized Estonia's authorities for their treatment of Mykolenko and other Russian military retirees, arguing this was a violation of obligations assumed by Tallinn under a 1994 agreement stipulating social guarantees for this population group.
Discrimination against the Russian community has been a major source of controversy between Moscow and Tallinn since Estonia gained independence in 1991. Ethnic Russians make up about a quarter of the country's 1.6 million inhabitants, but at least 300,000 are without citizenship. They have no right to vote and hold public offices, and face difficulties getting jobs in the services sector.
