The Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky
Leonid Eduardovich
stressed that such decision
would provide the legal basis for Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe made on March 16, 2022, as “it was the only right decision in the conditions of monstrous double standards, one-sided approaches and ant-Russia
attitude that we have witnessed in recent years in international institutions
in Strasbourg”.
“The gap with the inclusive European organization was widening as it was turning into an obedient instrument of the collective West. The unifying principles enshrined in the Charter of the Council of Europe became increasingly diffuse in favor of the European Union and NATO, turning the standards of the Council of Europe into the notorious “rules-based order”, and promoting alien values on Russia,” stressed Leonid Slutsky.
The Chairman of the Committee emphasized that withdrawal from the ECHR, in particular, would not adversely affect the observance of human rights in Russia.
“Over 26 years of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe, all of its norms have been implemented in national legislation, they are still in force and will continue to be applied. Moreover, the Russian Constitution provides for a wider range of guarantees of rights and freedoms than the ECHR,” said the parliamentarian.
The Committee also recommended denouncing the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). “We made such a recommendation due to another discriminatory decision of the Council of Europe to exclude Russia from GRECO, while Strasbourg still can continue monitoring of the implementation of obligations under the Convention,” said Leonid Slutsky. “At the same time, our country was deprived of the opportunity to participate in discussions and adoption of reports, as well as of the right to vote in general. They tried to turn Russia from a subject of agreements to an object of assessment, moreover, biased and prejudiced. Of course, such conditions are simply unacceptable,” he added.
The denunciation of the Convention will not affect the fight against corruption in Russia, according to the Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs: its norms have already been fully implemented in Russian legislation. In addition, Russia is still a part to other anti-corruption international agreements, including the UN Convention against Corruption, according to Leonid Slutsky.
The Committee proposed to consider those issues at the plenary sessions on 15 and 16 February.
