dgment of 25 March 2003, the applicant's activities in the Russian territory were "of a destructive nature and pose[d] a threat to the security of the Russian Federation". The Government emphasised that the threat resulted from the applicant's activities rather than his religious beliefs.
B. The Court's assessment
1. Existence of an interference with the applicant's
right to freedom of religion
61. The Court reiterates its consistent approach that freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as enshrined in Article 9, is one of the foundations of a "democratic society" within the meaning of the Convention. It is, in its religious dimension, one of the most vital elements that go to make up the identity of believers and their conception of life, but it is also a precious asset for atheists, agnostics, sceptics and the unconcerned. The pluralism indissociable from a democratic society, which has been dearly won over the centuries, depends on it. While religious freedom is primarily a matter of individual conscience, it also implies, inter alia, freedom to "manifest [one's] religion". Bearing witness in words and deeds is bound up with the existence of religious convictions. The Court has held on many occasions that the imposition of administrative or criminal sanctions for manifestation of religious belief or exercise of the right to freedom of religion was an interference with the rights guaranteed under Article 9 § 1 of the Convention (see Serif v. Greece, No. 38178/97, § 39, ECHR 1999-IX; Larissis and Others v. Greece, 24 February 1998, § 38, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-I, and Kokkinakis v. Greece, 25 May 1993, § 36, Series A No. 260-A).
62. The gist of the applicant's complaint was not that he was not allowed to stay or live in Russia but rather that his religious beliefs and/or activities had prompted the Russian authorities to ban his re-entry. The Court reiterates in this connection that, whereas the right of a foreigner to enter or remain in a country is not as such guaranteed by the Convention, immigration controls have to be exercised consistently with Convention obligations (see Abdulaziz, Cabales and Balkandali v. the United Kingdom, 28 May 1985, §§ 59 - 60, Series A No. 94). As regards specifically Article 9, it emphasises that "deportation does not... as such constitute an interference with the rights guaranteed by Article 9, unless it can be established that the measure was designed to repress the exercise of such rights and stifle the spreading of the religion or philosophy of the followers" (see Omkarananda and the Divine Light Zentrum v. Switzerland, No. 8118/77, Commission decision of 19 March 1981, Decisions and Reports (DR) 25, p. 118). More recently, the Court has examined cases against Bulgaria, in which the State's use of immigration controls as an instrument to put an end to an applicant's religious activities within its jurisdiction was found to have given rise to an admissible complaint of an interference with rights under Article 9 (see Al-Nashif v. Bulgaria (dec.), No. 50963/99, 25 January 2001, and Lotter v. Bulgaria (dec.), No. 39015/97, 5 November 1997). In a Latvian case the Court held that the refusal to issue an Evangelical pastor with a permanent residence permit "for religious activities", a decision which had been grounded on national-security considerations, amounted to an interference with the applicant's right to freedom of religion (see Perry v. Latvia, No. 30273/03, §§ 10 and 53, 8 November 2007). It follows that, in so far as the measure relating to the continuation of the applicant's residence in a given State was imposed in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of religion, such measure may disclose an interference with that right.
63. Accordingly, the Court's task in the present case is to establish whether the
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