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Russia to denounce remaining CE conventions if Western discrimination continues — diplomat

Nikolay Kobrinets emphasized that Russia left the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption after its delegation was "deprived of the opportunity to work efficiently in its monitoring body, the Group of States against Corruption"

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Russia will denounce the remaining conventions of the Council of Europe if Western discrimination continues, a senior Russian diplomat has told TASS in an interview.

"It should be noted that Russia remains a party to around 40 multilateral treaties, open for countries that are not part of the Council of Europe," Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of European Cooperation Nikolay Kobrinets said. "We have repeatedly said that we are ready to continue our participation in those depoliticized instruments, but on an equal footing and with respect to our interests. We will react to any discrimination, up to denouncing those conventions."

In his words, Russia’s ongoing participation in a number of international agreements irritates its opponents, who "keep trying to restrict the powers of Russian delegations in decision-making bodies of such conventions."

Kobrinets emphasized that Russia left the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption after its delegation was "deprived of the opportunity to work efficiently in its monitoring body, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)."

"Some other international treaties may suffer the same fate," the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of European Cooperation warned.

He said that documents that are for member countries only, such as the Statute of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, ceased to have effect on the territory of Russia when it withdrew from the Council of Europe, that is on March 16, 2022. Verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights, passed after March 15, 2022, are not valid in Russia, Kobrinets added.

Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe in March 2022. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, NATO and European Union countries, who abuse their absolute majority in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE), continue to pursue "a course towards the destruction of the Council of Europe and the common humanitarian and legal space in Europe." They "persistently turn this organization into an instrument of anti-Russian politics, by refusing to engage in an equal dialogue and rejecting all principles that serve as a foundation for this pan-European structure," the ministry added.