Members of the State Duma adopted the law “On the termination of international treaties of the Council of Europe with respect to the Russian Federation.”
On 25 February 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution suspending the Russian Federation from its rights of representation in the statutory bodies of the Council of Europe. On 15 March 2022, the Russian Federation officially notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe of its intention to voluntarily withdraw from the organization under Article 7 of the Charter of the Council of Europe, as well as to denounce the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
“However, on 16 March 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe grossly violated the Charter of the Council of Europe and adopted a resolution ceasing Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe from that date. The Russian Federation proceeds from the fact that the Convention and other mentioned international treaties of the Council of Europe ceased to apply for Russia from 16 March 2022,” the document emphasizes.
In addition, as Russia is no longer a member of the Council of Europe, there was a decision to pay contributions of 5.7 million euros to the budget of the Council of Europe only for the period from 1 January to 15 March 2022. The annual contribution of the Russian Federation to the budget of the organization for the whole year was supposed to be about 33.7 million euros.
The document proposes to terminate a number of documents, including the Charter of the Council of Europe adopted on 5 May 1949, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms adopted on 4 November 1950, the European Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism of 27 January 27 1977, the Charter of Local Self-Government of 15 October 1985 and the Social Charter adopted on 3 May 1996.
