Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov notified the Council of Europe of Russia's intention to withdraw from the organization the day before. Russia has been a member of the Council of Europe for 26 years
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to terminate Russia's membership in the organization from March 16. This is stated in the corresponding statement of the council.
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Russia has been a member of the Council of Europe since February 28, 1996.
“The Committee of Ministers, within the framework of the procedure initiated in accordance with Article 8 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, decided that the Russian Federation ceases to be a member of the Council of Europe from today, after 26 years of membership,” The report says.
An extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which considered this issue, took place on the morning of March 16 in Brussels.
The day before, March 15, the head of the Russian delegation of Russia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Vice Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy, said on Telegram that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov handed over to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Moscow's decision on Russia's withdrawal from the organization. At the same time, as Tolstoy stated, “the responsibility for breaking off dialogue with the Council of Europe lies with the NATO countries, which all this time have been using the topic of human rights to realize their own geopolitical interests and attacks on our country.”
Tolstoy said that Moscow decided to withdraw from the Council of Europe “in the midst of another anti-Russian discussion in PACE, the result of which could be another false Russophobic resolution based on conjectures that have nothing to do with reality.”
On the night of March 15, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy prepared a draft that called for Russia to be excluded from the Council of Europe. Its authors stated that Russia “committed actions incompatible with the status of the country” members of the organization. They expressed solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
Russia stated that it did not agree with how the Council of Europe reacted to the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, and in general with the situation in the organization.
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The Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the decision to launch the withdrawal procedure from the Council of Europe, stated that the NATO and EU countries, “abusing their majority in the council, are consistently turning it into an instrument of anti-Russian policy.” In particular, the Foreign Ministry recalled that on February 25, the Council of Europe decided to suspend Russia's representation in the statutory bodies of the Council of Europe— Parliamentary Assembly and Committee of Ministers.
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