led before the exercise of his rights under paragraph 1 (a), (b) and (c) of this Article, when such expulsion is necessary in the interests of public order or is grounded on reasons of national security."
A. Submissions by the parties
107. The applicant submitted that he had been lawfully resident in Russia for over seven years and that at the time of his attempted re-entry he had possessed a valid visa. The visa had retained full validity at the material time and no order had been issued to deport him or to shorten its duration. The applicant had therefore been lawfully resident in Russia, even though at the time of the events he had not been physically present on Russian soil. The decision taken against him had been a measure "compelling the departure of an alien from the territory" within the meaning of the Explanatory Report to Protocol No. 7 and therefore fell under the notion of "expulsion". The applicant lastly maintained that he had not been afforded the procedural guarantees required under Article 1 § 1 of Protocol No. 7. In so far as the Government relied upon the national-security exception in paragraph 2 of that provision, the applicant claimed that on the facts, that would amount to a breach of Article 18 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 1 § 2 of Protocol No. 7.
108. The Government claimed, firstly, that the applicant had not been resident in Russia because he had flown in from Cyprus. Secondly, they alleged that his visa had no longer been valid and his residence had therefore been unlawful, referring to the Commission's decision in the Voulfouvitch and Oulianova v. Sweden case (No. 19373/92, Commission decision of 13 January 1993). Thirdly, they maintained that the decision on the applicant's exclusion had been taken "in accordance with the law", namely section 27 § 1 of the Entry Procedure Act, and that an alien could be expelled before being able to exercise his procedural rights if this was necessary "in the interests of public order or is grounded on reasons of national security". The Government did not state the reasons underlying the expulsion decision, referring to "generally accepted international practice". They lastly pointed out that the right to admit aliens to its territory was a universally recognised sovereign right of a State.
B. The Court's assessment
1. Applicability of Article 1 of Protocol No. 7
109. The scope of application of Article 1 of Protocol No. 7 extends to aliens "lawfully resident" in the territory of the State in question. It is therefore necessary to ascertain that the applicant was lawfully resident in Russia at the time of his exclusion from Russian territory.
110. Firstly, as to the Government's argument that the applicant could not be considered "resident" because he had come from Cyprus and was thus outside Russian territory, the Court emphasises that the notion of "residence" in a given State is broader than that of "physical presence" on that State's territory. As paragraph 9 of the Explanatory Report indicates, the word "resident" operates to exclude those aliens who have not been admitted to the territory or have only been admitted for non-residential purposes (see paragraph 48 above). These exceptions are obviously inapplicable to someone who, like the applicant, had continuously resided in the country for many years. It does not appear plausible to the Court that, after having been admitted for residential purposes and having established his or her residence in a given State, an individual would cease to be "resident" each and every time he or she took a trip abroad, no matter how short in duration. The notion of "residence" is akin to the autonomous concept of "home" developed under Article 8 of the Convention, in that both are not limited to physical presence but depend on the existence of sufficient and co
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