Members of the State Duma adopted a law denouncing the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. It had been submitted by the President of the Russian Federation.
The Russian Federation signed the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption in Strasbourg on 27 January 1999 and ratified it on 25 July 2006.
The explanatory note says that, according to the resolution “On legal and financial consequences of the cessation of membership of the Russian Federation in the Council of Europe”, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to cease membership of the Russian Federation in the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). Russia ceased to be a member of the organization, except the cases when GRECO monitors the fulfillment by our country of its obligations under the Convention.
The Russian Federation was also deprived of the right to participate in the discussion or adoption of reports and to vote, as emphasizes the explanatory note. “Due to the inadmissibility of such conditions for the Russian Federation, as well as in order to take measures aimed at preventing a discriminatory attitude towards the Russian Federation by the GRECO evaluation mechanisms, it is proposed to denounce the Convention and cease membership of the Russian Federation in GRECO,” the document also says.
As said the Chairman of the Committee
on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky
Leonid Eduardovich
, the denunciation of the Convention would
not affect countering corruption in Russia in any way: its norms had already
been fully incorporated into modern Russian legislation. In addition, Russia would
continue to be a part of other anti-corruption international agreements,
including the UN Convention against Corruption, as added the parliamentarian.
