MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill terminating the Council of Europe's (CoE) international agreements for Russia, the official website of legal information said.
In view of Russia's withdrawal from the CoE, a total of 21 international agreements have been terminated with respect to Russia from March 16, 2022. These include the CoE Charter, the General Agreement on CoE privileges and immunities, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and the European Social Charter.
An explanatory note to the bill says that, on February 25, 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the CoE passed a resolution suspending Russia's rights of representation in its statutory bodies.
On March 15, 2022 Russia formally notified the CoE secretary general of its intention to withdraw from the CoE under Article 7 of the CoE Charter (that regulates voluntary withdrawal), and to denounce the European Convention on Human Rights. On March 16, 2022, the CoE ministers adopted a resolution to terminate Russia's CoE membership with immediate effect.
Russia assumes that that the said convention, and the other aforementioned CoE documents, ceased to be valid for Russia from March 16, 2022.
Russia's total contribution to the CoE budget and its partial agreements for 2022 should have amounted to around 33.7 million euro, the note said. Because Russia is no longer a member, it was decided that the contributions should be paid only for the period when it was still within the organization, i.e. from January 1 to March 15, 2022. In all, around 5.7 million euro, the document said.