EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

Baltic countries as permanent residents. It further stated that in the future he would be able to visit the Baltic countries only as a foreigner. It was stated that he and his family did not possess a dwelling in the Baltic countries and that they would not seek to privatise or sell the dwelling at their disposal and that they had not received and would not receive any payment for vacating their current dwelling. It was also stated that he confirmed that at the moment of signing the application he did not have housing in Russia and that he had not paid anyone for the right to take part in the programme. It was stated that he was aware that if all the preconditions for taking part in the programme were fulfilled and he were to comply with all the conditions and requirements of the programme, he would receive money for buying a dwelling. Finally, it was stated that he was also aware that the participation in the programme was voluntary and that if it were to prove unsuccessful, his place in a municipal waiting list of applicants for dwelling would be retained. On 21 April 1995 the first applicant concluded an agreement in Smolensk with the company Smolenskiy DSK to the effect that he would pay an equivalent of 25,000 US dollars and receive an apartment at Popov Street 120-349 in Smolensk. The agreement was to become valid if the first applicant were to get money in the context of the programme for granting military reserve officers certificates for obtaining housing. On 4 July 1995 the applicants submitted an application for a residence permit in Estonia. On 31 August 1995 the mayor of Smolensk allocated apartment no. 337 at 120 Popov Street to the first applicant and ordered that he be registered as its owner. On 18 December 1995, the first applicant was entered in the list of staff of the military unit in Smolensk. On 11 July 1996 the applicants were granted temporary residence permits in Estonia for five years. As from 1997 the first applicant was working as a guard in Estonia. The second applicant was working as a housemaid, also in that country, as from 1999. In 1999 the Foreigners’ Act was amended so as to exclude the possibility of issuing or extending residence permits to persons who had committed themselves to leaving Estonia or who had received an accommodation abroad within the framework of an international aid programme. On 28 November 2000 the second applicant privatised (purchased on favourable conditions from the municipality) an apartment no. 56 at 1 Muuli Street in Paldiski. On 13 February 2001 the second applicant, acting as her son Sergey’s proxy, privatised an apartment no. 10 at 1 Kivi Street in Paldiski. On 30 April 2001 the applicants applied for extensions of their residence permits. On 2 November 2001 the Minister of the Interior issued orders by which the applicants were refused extensions. The refusal was based on two grounds. Firstly, the first applicant had served as a professional member of the armed forces of a foreign country and had retired. This ground applied also to the second applicant as a family member of the first applicant. Secondly, the applicants had committed themselves to leaving Estonia and had received accommodation abroad within the framework of an international aid programme. The applicants submitted a complaint to the Tallinn Administrative Court. They contested the retroactive application of the provisions of the Foreigners’ Act so as to refuse extensions of residence permits of persons who had committed themselves to leaving Estonia and who had received an accommodation abroad within the framework of an international aid programme. The Foreigners’ Act did not contain the disputed provisions at the time when the applicants participated in the aid programme and received accommodation in Russia. They argued that their legitimate expectation rights and the principle of legal certainty had been violated. They also maintained that their commitment to leave the country had not been made to the Estonian authorities. They further complained that their right to family and private life had been violated. On 8 May 2002 the Tallinn Administrative Court dismissed the complaint. It observed that the Foreigners’ Act provided that the residence permits of former professional members of armed forces of a foreign country and of their family members could be extended only in

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