Russia did not leave the Council of Europe on its own – it was expelled from there
Last week, the Council of Europe decided to accept Russia from its ranks because of its aggression against Ukraine. It was decided to completely exclude Russia from this organization.
The powers of Russian justice in the European Court of Human Rights were also consumed: Russia is no longer under its jurisdiction.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, currently chairing the Committee of the Council of Europe, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Tiny Cox and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maria Pejcinovic-Buric, made a statement saying that “the Russian authorities, through their actions in Ukraine, deprived the Russian state of the most advanced system of human rights protection in the world, including the jurisdiction of litigation in the case of a person”, is also specified:
“We continue to use the full determination of his availability of means to deliver support, assistance and means of protection against the spread of the Ukrainian people in the fight against the aggressor and to keep in touch with the outside world on the basis of expectation and international cooperation.”
PACE The Russian Foreign Ministry in Strasbourg is preparing a report from Moscow on the results of the Council of Europe on the occasion of the emergence of this organization “in an instrument of anti-Russian policy.”
In an exclusive interview with the Voice of America Russian Service, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, parliamentarian from the Netherlands, Tiny Kox, said “Krem has taken his army to hell from Ukraine and stopped the destruction of civilians in this country.
Danila Galperovich: Why did the Council of Europe solve this problem and what are the main reasons? We remember that earlier both the Council of Europe and PACE decided to leave Russia in their organization, despite the annexation and occupation of Crimea.
Teeny Cox: The Russian Federation has openly violated the charter of the Council of Europe, in that we work for peace and cooperation in Europe, and this is not mandatory with the provision of action, like sending troops to safely invade a neighboring country. After PACE unanimously stood out with the exception of Russia, I said that this is a sad moment, but I am glad that we made such a decision.
There are “red lines” in our organization, and Russia not only violated the borders of Ukraine, but also crossed these “red lines” of the Council of Europe. And, to explain what was done and not done in 2014: then the Council of Europe could not react as it happened, there was simply no mechanism. The Commission of the Council of Europe failed – or did not appoint – to appoint a representation of the Russian membership in our organization, and the Parliamentary Assembly also could not do more than what it did, namely, suspend the right to vote in the PACE delegation. If Mr. Lavrov continues, does he have all the rights in the CE Presence Committee? In 2019, we changed the system, and then we considered the possibility of withdrawing from Russia to PACE, but with the likelihood that if another blatant violation of our charter followed, then Russia would be excluded from the Council of Europe.
Now this is exactly what has happened: if you start a war against a neighboring country, you have no place in our organization. Now representatives of representatives have no place: neither in the Committee, nor in PACE, and as I have always said, I think that the Council of Europe has responded most quickly of all international organizations and has responded quickly. time – I’m sad that it’s come to this, but I’m glad we’ve made that decision yet.
DG: What are the consequences of Russia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe – for the Council of Europe itself, for the authorities and for a number of its citizens? T.K.: For the Council of Europe, the consequences were that we lost most of the country that had membership in our organization. But 46 countries remained in it, which, of course, will make sure that its spirit and preservation are preserved. For the citizens of Russia, this has dramatic consequences, because so far 140 million of its inhabitants have been under the possible protection of human rights and have been relevant to the European Court of Human Rights, given that their rights have been violated. They will no longer have this opportunity. This is very shameful, and all this shame lies with the Russian authorities, who are now not only causing the most severe damage to the citizens of Ukraine, but also depriving their citizens of fundamental rights. And I very much hope that Russian citizens will eventually call their authorities to account for this blatant disregard for their rights.
DG: Moscow stated that it had withdrawn from the Council of Europe of its own free will, and not because of the organization’s decision, and accused the Council of Europe of turning “into a satellite of Washington.” What are the implications of these statements?
T.K.: I am very disappointed that the Russian authorities have lowered their statements. Russia became a member of the Council of Europe voluntarily, and all this time in the organization she participated in her work with many other ordinary people. And now she has grossly violated the statute of the Council of Europe, that she herself has always said that it is very important, including for herself. So, the accusation against someone else of what Russia is to blame for itself is very pitiful.
In reality, Russia was precisely thrown out of our organization. I received an official letter from (Russian Foreign Minister – ed.) Lavrov, and this was their last attempt to somehow stretch the process and continue the turmoil, but it failed. We took with us that started after I convened the PASE Joint Committee and first suspended Russia’s powers in the Transfer and Transfer Committee. We have decided to deprive Russia of membership in our organization due to the fact that it carried out a surprise invasion of Ukraine. So, this is not some kind of decision provided to the authorities of the Russian Federation.
DG: How can PACE and the Council of Europe as a whole help Ukraine now?
T.K.: Ukraine, which has gained full membership in the Council of Europe, is currently under attack by the Russian army, and we give it as much support as we can choose. We are not the UN in Ukraine and we do not observe, but we see that now people are fleeing because of the war, the coverage of the borders of European countries, and we are trying to serve them as much as possible than organizations. The Commissioner of the Council of Europe, at the choice of a person, visits these countries in order to attract how we can help now. And we are also following the events very carefully so that not only the Russian army, but the Russian authorities as a whole, eventually bear responsibility to the INF community. I think the Kremlin made a huge mistake when they decided they were going to take Ukraine by surprise for three or four days and then everything goes back to business as usual. So, the usual course of affairs, “business as usual”, now will never happen again. The Russian authorities are now fully responsible for the daily shelling of people in Ukraine, and the best they can do is to immediately stop this shelling and immediately withdraw their troops from Ukrainian territory.
Every next day of this war only hides their shame more and more. And, as I said, I really hoped that the Russian citizens would call their authorities to account for the fact that they lost an attack on both the independence and dignity of Ukrainians, and on the rights of their compatriots.
We were very pleased with their presence at the acute crisis, in which half of their obesity participated in person, having come to Strasbourg. I was happy to talk to them and wished them all the best of luck because they are returning to Ukraine and it is very dangerous there now. But they are citizens of Ukraine, and they calculate the delay rate of the Council of Europe. DG: In Russia, after being expelled from the Council of Europe, some officials and politicians said that now there are no cases of applying for the death penalty. What will it be transferred to Russia itself?
Т.К.: This is another shameful accusation of people. Russia, having joined the Council of Europe, voluntarily introduced a moratorium on the death penalty, and at least did so. Naturally, it was impossible for her to be in the Council of Europe and keep the death penalty, but, moreover, it was her own decision. And now the reasoning “we left the Council of Europe, it’s time to return the death penalty.” Now it is very symbolic how the authorities in Russia violate the restrictions that they once voluntarily set for themselves. Fortunately, there are other voices in Russia who say: “A return to the death penalty does not matter, and even if we are not in the Council of Europe, we still have obligations and at least some representation about the rule of law.”
But there are now very, very bad signals coming from the Kremlin that respect for the supreme law in relation to the Russian citizens themselves is of less and less importance to it. and the authorities in the Kremlin must understand this. And the first thing they need to do is that the limit burns out, stops the destruction and destruction of the neighboring country, acquires significance and acquires value to its own line of the army from where it should not be.