The ECHR had decided that Russia's absolute ban on prisoners voting pursuant to Article 32 § 3 of that country's constitution was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Russian Constitutional Court said that the ECHR has no right to demand changes to the Russian constitution and that the earlier ruling by the ECHR may be "partially" satisfied in Russia.

The court stated that the ECHR ruling could be satisfied in terms of "general actions aimed to ensure justice, proportionality and differentiation in restriction of inmates' voting rights" and that the legislature could "change certain regimes of confinement alternative punishment which does not lead to restriction of voting rights".

However, the court rejected the ECHR ruling demanding voting rights be returned to the Russian nationals that served as the parties involved in the earlier ECHR case that serves as the origin of the current controversy. Russia passed a law in 2015 that permits the Constitutional Court to reject rulings of international human rights bodies if the court find that the ruling contradicts the Russian Constitution.

The ECHR issued a similar ruling in 2014, finding that the UK's ban on prisoners voting violated their human rights. In October 2013 the Supreme Court of the UK had upheld the law that banned inmates from voting.