Russia prepares to withdraw from the Council of Europe

According to a recent statement by the Russian foreign ministry, the CoE’s Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric has already received a notification regarding the withdrawal, after pressure on Moscow increased due to its war-related military actions. Nevertheless, the pan-European rights body already considered expelling Russia from its structures, after the Parliamentary Assembly held an emergency meeting in Strasbourg.

“As leaders of the Council of Europe we expressed on several occasions our firm condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.

“[Russia’s exit would] not affect the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and the implementation of already adopted resolutions of the European Court of Human Rights will continue, if they do not contradict Russia’s Constitution”, commented the President of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Luigi Di Maio.

On the other hand, the Russian foreign ministry declared that his country is “launching the procedure to exit the Council of Europe” with “no regrets”.

Russia was a member of the CoE for 26 years, since 1996. However, the exiting decision paves the way to reintroducing the death penalty if the Russian officials consider it necessary.

With this “Ruxit”, Russia can no longer sign or apply to any of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) activities.

Greece was the only country in the organisation’s history that temporarily renounced its membership back in the 1960s.

 

Source: aljazeera.com