Moscow allegedly discriminated against
Putin terminates his treaties with the Council of Europe
01/17/2023 9:13 p.m
The Russian President once again claims that Western institutions disadvantage his country. Putin also counts the Council of Europe among them. After being expelled from the committee, Putin ended the cooperation by law – now he no longer has to observe human rights agreements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants the termination of treaties with the Council of Europe to be anchored in law. This applies, for example, to the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention to Combat Terrorism and the European Social Charter. This emerges from the draft law that Putin brought to parliament. The farewell is a matter of form.
Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe months ago because of its war of aggression against Ukraine. It was already known last week that the head of the Kremlin also wants to have the termination of Russia’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Combating Corruption enshrined in law. Putin justified the dismissal with discrimination against Russia.
The Council of Europe curtailed Russia’s full membership of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). “In accordance with this decision, Russia’s membership of GRECO will be suspended, except in cases where GRECO conducts its observer mission on compliance with our country’s commitments, in which case Russia loses the right to participate in the discussion or adoption of reports and the right to vote,” says the explanatory letter to the law. This discrimination is unacceptable for Russia.
As a result, the largest country in the world in terms of area is no longer a member of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the Court of Justice ensures compliance with. However, several thousand lawsuits against Moscow are still pending at the Human Rights Court. They were all filed until Russia was formally excluded and must therefore be examined by the court. According to the convention, Russia is contractually bound to implement the judgments. Moscow has already announced that it will not comply. The Council of Europe, the Convention on Human Rights and the Court of Justice are independent of the EU.