MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bill on denunciation of the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. The law has been published Tuesday.
The Treaty was signed on January 27, 1999, in Strasbourg. Russia ratified it in July 2006. On January 9, 2023, Putin introduced the bill on denunciation of the convention to the Russian State Duma; the lawmakers passed the bill on February 15.
According to the Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev, Russia was forced to withdraw from the Convention by the Council of Europe’s political decisions, which stripped Russia of its full membership in the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO). The CE’s Council of Ministers adopted the corresponding resolution on March 23, 2022.
"Russia was stripped of its right to participate in discussion and adoption of reports, as well as its of its voting right. Russia’s membership in the GRECO was ceased with an exception of the group’s monitoring of our country’s fulfillment of obligations under the convention," Kosachev noted.
"Since such conditions are unacceptable for the Russian federation, and, in order to take measures aimed to prevent discriminatory attitude to the Russian Federation in regards to GRECO’s assessment mechanisms, it is being proposed to denounce the Convention," a memo accompanying the bill reads.
Previously, Russian authorities underscored that, despite the denunciation of the Convention, Moscow does not abandon its obligations on combating corruption. Anti-corruption legislation remain in effect in Russia, an the Convention is implemented within this legislation, Kosachev noted. Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on constitutional legislation and state-building Andrey Klishas also told TASS that the denunciation of the convention will not lead to an abrupt change of severity of penalties for corruption-related crimes in any way.