Rexit: Russia Withdraws from the Council of Europe

Europe
ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images
Jack Montgomery

Russia has reportedly left the Council of Europe, which oversees the European Court of Human Rights, alleging European Union and  NATO “abuse” of their influence in the organisation.

“The EU and NATO states, which are unfriendly to Russia, are using their absolute majority in the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to continue the destruction of the Council of Europe and the common humanitarian and legal space in Europe,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused in an official statement published on March 10th.

“The events are approaching a point of no return. Russia will not accept the subversive actions being taken by the collective West to replace international law, which the United States and its satellites are trampling underfoot, with a ‘rules-based order’,” the statement  continued, adding: “Russia will not participate in the campaign being waged by NATO and its obedient EU followers to turn the oldest European organisation into another platform for preaching about Western superiority and for grandstanding. Let them enjoy each other’s company without Russia.”

The aforementioned “point of no return” has now been reached, according to EU-funded news outlet Euractiv, reporting that Russia has left the organisation.

Euractiv suggested that the Russian exit from the Council of Europe, or CoE, was a question of the country jumping before it was pushed over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which is also a CoE member.

Russia’s had already had its representation in the Council of Europe suspended in February, although this did not terminate its membership of the organisation to an end or its theoretical commitment to abide by the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights which enforces it — a situation which has now come to an end.

Founded in the 1950s, the Council of Europe should not be confused with the European Union or two similarly named EU institutions, the Council of the European Union and the European Council.

The two organisations are informally linked, however, insofar as countries applying to join the European Union must agree to have regard to European Court of Human Rights case law, and a sitting Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom has — prior to Brexit — stated his belief that “it is not possible to be a member of the European Union and to have left or denounced the European Convention on Human Rights.”

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