“The legal aspect of the decision is being fixed”: the State Duma adopted a law on the termination of the Council of Europe treaties

The State Duma adopted the law "On the termination of international treaties of the Council of Europe with respect to the Russian Federation."

As noted in the lower house of parliament, the adopted law "fixes the legal aspect of the decision to terminate Russia's membership in the Council of Europe of March 16, 2022."

In accordance with the decision of the deputies, it is proposed to consider 21 international treaties as terminated.

Among them are the Statute of the Council of Europe of 5 May 1949, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950, the European Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism of 27 January 1977, the Charter of Local Self-Government of 15 October 1985 and the Social Charter of 3 May 1996.

The State Duma recalled that on February 25, 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution to suspend the representation of the Russian Federation in the statutory bodies of the Council.

Later, on March 15, 2022, the Russian side notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe of its intention to leave the organization and denounce the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

At the same time, the parliamentarians recalled that on March 16, 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution to terminate Russia's membership in the Council of Europe from the same date.

“The Russian Federation proceeds from the fact that the said Convention and other mentioned international treaties of the Council of Europe ceased to be valid for Russia from March 16, 2022,” the State Duma of the Russian Federation said.

It is also noted that in connection with the termination of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe, a decision was made to pay contributions of €5.7 million to the budgets of the Council of Europe exclusively for the period from January 1 to March 15, 2022.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that we need to think about creating a new international organization to replace the Council of Europe.

According to him, the CE institutions "are rotten, today's values ​​cannot unite the participants."

Also on russian.rt.com "Deterrence Institute": why Russia decided to withdraw from the Council of Europe

“Therefore, we need to think about creating a new organization, do everything for this.

In order to ensure that the principles that we use and defend and promote in international relations - mutual respect, the absence of double standards, non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other states (sovereign states!), respect for their culture, traditions, history, language - would form the basis of the work and existence of the new organization, ”TASS quotes Volodin.

He recalled that the Council of Europe was formed in 1949.

According to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, at that time the world was multipolar, and international institutions worked "on the principles of respect for each other."

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Volodin continued, the world became unipolar, and international institutions began to gradually degrade.

In an interview with RT, Sergei Tsekov, a member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, called Volodin's proposal correct.

“I want the new council to unite sovereign states without all the bad things that are in the Council of Europe,” the RT interlocutor added.

As the parliamentarian explained, some countries that are members of the EU and are represented in the Council of Europe as sovereign states, in fact, are not.

The senator also expressed confidence that the new entity would be much more fair and beneficial to the international community.

It should be noted that earlier Vladimir Putin spoke about Russia's withdrawal from the CE, as well as from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

During the annual meeting of judges, the President noted the politicization of the decisions of this structure.

“Some verdicts of this court, the ECtHR, have become overtly politicized.

True, this was already a long time ago, but recently it has simply acquired an absolutely unacceptable character.

And bias, partiality, no matter how they are justified, are in any case absolutely unacceptable for the judiciary,” the head of state said.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - about the objects used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in space

In the meantime, the Russian Foreign Ministry spoke about the possibility of a retaliatory strike against objects in space used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As Konstantin Vorontsov, Deputy Head of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated during a round table in the Federation Council, the fact that Washington and its allies began to use components of civil, including commercial, infrastructure in space for military purposes is a trend, clearly manifested during the events in Ukraine.

“We point out that such activities essentially constitute indirect participation in armed conflicts.

We denote that such a quasi-civilian space infrastructure may turn out to be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike, ”TASS quotes Vorontsov.

According to the diplomat, the provocative use of civilian satellites at least raises questions in the context of the Outer Space Treaty, which provides for their exclusively peaceful use, and requires "the most serious condemnation by the international community."