Russia exits Council of Europe Human Rights watchdog

Russia on Tuesday resigned from the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog, pre-empting an expected expulsion due to its attack on neighbouring Ukraine. 

Russia is the second country to exit the pan-European group tasked with upholding human rights and the rule of law since its formation after World War Two. The Council of Europe was established in 1949, and Russia joined later in 1996. 

In 1969, Greece did the same to avoid expulsion after army officers seized power in a military coup. After restoring democracy five years later, it rejoined.

Russia's departure from the institution that drafted the European Convention on Human Rights and aided eastern European countries in democratising their political systems when Communism fell apart has symbolic significance.

However, the decision announced hours before a vote on its expulsion in the Council of Europe's Assembly also has concrete consequences. 

The human rights convention will no longer apply to Russia, and Russians will no longer be able to file an appeal against their government with the European Court of Human Rights.

In its explanation, Russia accused Western countries of undermining the human rights organisation, which had suspended Russia's membership on February 25, the day after it invaded Ukraine.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the International Affairs Committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, accused NATO countries and the European Union of seeing the Council of Europe as a means of ideological support for their economic expansion to the east and military-political.

The Council of Europe's Assembly said Russia should be pushed out in a resolution drafted on Monday but adopted on Tuesday following Moscow's announcement. It said there is no place for an aggressor in the common European home.

The resolution was adopted by unanimity, stating that the impact of Russia withdrawing from Europe's court of human rights would be mitigated by the fact that Moscow failed to act on its judgements correctly. 

The former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, now a Council of Europe assembly member, said that the decision is not against the people of Russia; it's against the autocratic, kleptocratic, oppressive regime of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. He added that Greece was kicked out of the European Council in the 1970s, strengthening their struggle for democracy and freedom. 

On his Telegram channel, Pyotr Tolstoy, the Russian delegation's head at the Council's Parliamentary Assembly, stated that he had handed over a letter from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announcing Moscow's decision to exit the watchdog.

The Council of Europe, separate from the European Union, confirmed it had received a letter from Russia. 

Russia named its invasion of Ukraine as a special operation to demilitarise and 'denazify' Ukraine and prevent a genocide of Russian speakers. This is a baseless pretext for a war of choice, as per Ukraine and its western allies.

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• Council of Europe
• European Council
• European Court of Human Rights
• Greece
• Moscow
• NATO
• Pyotr Tolstoy
• Russia-Ukraine war