The circumstance of time means that a state signing and ratifying one or another international treaty undertakes an engagement to fulfill it beginning from an appointed moment. The Russian Federation has committed itself to observing human rights set out in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms since May 5, 1998.

   That means that the Russian Federation does not bear any responsibility before the European Court of Human Rights for violations of human rights committed before May 5, 1998.

   Lately the European Court of Human Rights rendered a great number of judgments on admissibility of complaints against the Russian Federation, according to which the complaints of applicants were declared inadmissible. Exactly the fact that a violation of a right was committed before May 5, 1998 is one of the main and frequently grounds for declaring a complaint inadmissible.