Russia withdraws from Council of Europe treaties completely

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law terminating the validity of treaties concluded within the framework of the Council of Europe for the Russian Federation; the Russian Federation has not been a member of this international organisation since March 2022.

The corresponding document has been published on the official portal of legal information of Russia, European Pravda reports.

The law, the draft of which Putin submitted to the Russian parliament in January 2022, recognizes 21 international treaties as invalid with respect to Russia, as of 16 March 2022.

Among them are the Statute of the Council of Europe, the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and the Social Charter.

In March 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a decision to expel the Russian Federation from the organisation, and also called for providing Ukraine with means of airspace protection. Before that, Russia, realising that exclusion would not be avoided, submitted an application to Strasbourg, stating a self-withdrawal.

The European Court of Human Rights decided to suspend consideration of all complaints against the Russian Federation, but later resumed them. In June, Russia itself decided to cut off ECHR decisions issued after 15 March 2022.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe stated that Russia, according to international law, is still obliged to comply with the decisions of the ECHR passed against it. 

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