The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered the Russian state to pay 75,000 euros ($84,900) to nine activists detained at protest rallies in 2006, 2007, and 2010.
The court's July 2 ruling said that in all nine cases the Russian authorities violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights that guarantees freedom of peaceful assembly.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR court also ruled that there had been a violation of Article 13, saying the activists did not have an effective remedy against the alleged violations of their freedom of assembly.
Prominent Russian human rights activists Lev Ponomaryov, Mikhail Kriger, and Mikhail Shneider are among the nine persons who filed the complaints.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 1999, is accused by critics of using the police and courts to stifle dissent.
European Court Says Russia Violated Activists' Right To Protest
Human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov (file photo)