It was to be expected.

Russia decided on Tuesday to leave the Council of Europe, accusing NATO and the European Union of having made it an instrument at the service of "their military-political and economic expansion in the East", in the 20th day of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

In the Council since 1996

A watchdog of human rights in Europe, this one, created in 1949, brought together until then almost all the States of the continent, 47 in total, including Russia since 1996, and Ukraine, since 1995. Only Belarus, ally of Moscow, was not one of them.

"Those who force us to take this step will bear all the responsibility for the destruction of the common humanitarian and legal space on the continent and the consequences for the Council of Europe itself, which, without Russia, will lose its status pan-European”, resumed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

No more ECHR for Russians

The main concrete consequence of this withdrawal is that the 145 million Russians will no longer be able to benefit from the protection of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the judicial arm of the Council of Europe, the last resort against arbitrariness. courts in their country.

Moscow is indeed the main provider of cases before the ECHR: more than 24% of the cases currently pending before the judicial arm of the Council concern Russia, with certain emblematic cases, such as that of the opponent Alexeï Navalny.

Russia accuses the Council of exploiting it

In its statement, Russian diplomacy rightly accuses the institutions of the Council of Europe, including the ECHR, of having been “systematically used to exert pressure on Russia and interfere in its internal affairs”.

Moscow had already been suspended from the Council the day after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

And several Russian officials had hinted at the end of last week that Moscow was preparing to leave the Council of Europe definitively, but no formal request had been made until then.

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  • Moscow

  • Vladimir Poutine

  • War in Ukraine

  • World

  • Europe

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