6 TATISHVILI v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT file an application for registration within three days of the move and to submit an identity document, an application form and a document showing the legal basis for residence at the indicated address (such as a rent contract or the consent of the flat-owner). Section 12 of the Regulations, as worded at the material time, provided that the registration could be refused if the applicant had not submitted written consent or had produced manifestly false documents; the list of grounds for the refusal was exhaustive. 31. On 2 February 1998 the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation struck down certain provisions of the Regulations as incompatible with the Russian Constitution. It ruled, in particular, that: “...the registration authorities are only entitled to certify the freely expressed will of a citizen in his choice of... residence. This is why the registration system may not be permission-based and it shall not entail a restriction on the citizen's constitutional right to choose his place of... residence. Therefore the registration system in the sense compatible with the Russian Constitution is only a means... of counting people within the Russian Federation which is notice-based and reflects the fact of a citizen's stay at a place of his temporary or permanent residence.” The Constitutional Court emphasised that, upon presentation of an identity document and a document confirming the person's right to reside at the chosen address, the registration authority should have no discretion and should register the person concerned at the address indicated. The requirement to submit any additional document might lead to “paralysis of a citizen's rights”. On that ground the Constitutional Court ruled that the registration authorities were not entitled to verify the authenticity of the submitted documents or their compliance with the Russian laws and, accordingly, any such grounds for refusal were unconstitutional. E. Penalties for violations of residence registration rules 32. On 9 July 1997 the Moscow Government passed a Law on the conditions of residence in Moscow for foreign citizens who have the right to enter Russia without a visa (no. 33). The Law applied to foreign citizens from the CIS and to stateless persons. It required non-Russian citizens to apply for residence registration within three days of their arrival (if staying for longer than ten days). Section 10 of the Law provided that a nonRussian citizen residing in Moscow for more than three days without the appropriate residence registration was liable to a fine of up to RUR 500 (approximately EUR 20 in 2001) or, in the event of a repeated offence, up to RUR 2,000 (EUR 80). The same penalty could be imposed on a flat-owner who permitted a non-Russian citizen to live in his or her premises without residence registration.