What awaits Russia if it leaves the Council of Europe

As you know, the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Pyotr Tolstoy said yesterday that he does not rule out that the procedure for excluding Russia from the Council of Europe will be launched:

“The problem is that it is the Parliamentary Assembly that chooses the judges of the ECHR, most of whom represent Soros' NGOs, it is this assembly that decides to launch the tripartite procedure - and not the fact that it will not be launched. It seems to me that we must do: first, of course, we must separately reconsider our role in this organization, and secondly, we must be ready to leave it if the trilateral procedure is launched in relation to our country. (...) We can create our own ECHR together with our allies, if we have them. And if we do not have them, then we can create an additional control mechanism within our legal system that will satisfy the aspirations of our citizens in terms of protecting their rights".

This statement could not but provoke a reaction from experts. For example, analysts of the Methodichka channel, Tolstoy's words about Russia's lack of allies in PACE made them ponder:

“The PACE includes Russia's first-level partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia. Second-level partners - Austria, Turkey, Hungary. The vaccine partners are San Marino, where Sputnik V was sent instead of Dagestan. Monaco and the Czech Republic, which are also asking to send them a vaccine instead of Dagestan.

Peter Tolstoy could not find allies among at least a dozen of these countries. Tolstoy complains that the countries that Russia "for some reason considers its allies" do not support Moscow, "we ourselves do not really understand what we are doing in PACE, what interests we are defending". The question is, what was Tolstoy doing in PACE then? Shone your face? Have you thought up what interests to defend, and haven’t come up with it?”

Journalist Dmitry Kolezev is confident that such a decision, if followed, will have the most dire consequences for the citizens of our country:

Deputy Pyotr Tolstoy, who in the Russian parliament is responsible for relations with the Council of Europe through the Parliamentary Assembly, of course, is not the last instance in the Russian state, but the Russian Federation has previously threatened to leave the Council of Europe. But nevertheless, one gets the impression that the Russian authorities are only glad of the occasion to leave the Soviet and loudly slam the door. Putin's assignment to work on his own human rights court to replace the ECHR is a sign that these plans are quite realistic.

The consequences can be dire. Withdrawal from the Council of Europe will not only deprive Russians of the right to seek protection in the ECHR in the last instance, but also free the hands of those wishing to return the death penalty in Russia (the moratorium on the death penalty was imposed precisely as a consequence of the obligation to ratify the protocol of the European convention on the prohibition of the death penalty).

Of course, in theory, Russia will retain other international obligations to protect human rights, for example, within the framework of the UN. Still, the Council of Europe and the ECHR are really working regional mechanisms, and the UN is too high a global authority. There is also the Russian Constitution, where rights and freedoms are also enshrined, but how much they are actually observed is a purely rhetorical question.

It can also be said that, in fact, many European norms on the protection of human rights in Russia are not being implemented anyway. Well, for example, torture is prohibited, but in Russia they are tortured - the evidence of this is numerous and undeniable. But if so far such gross violations of rights are nevertheless perceived as violations, then with the further isolation of Russia from international legal institutions, they can turn into a much more widespread and even officially permitted phenomenon.

Tolstoy's words that Russia has no allies in the Council of Europe are also indicative. The Council of Europe consists of 47 states, and it turned out that no one among them supports Russia. How did it happen? Is this the result of a wise and forward-looking foreign policy of recent years? If Serbia, Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan no longer support Russia, then what is the great merit of the Kremlin's foreign policy?"

Dmitry Drize, a political observer for Kommersant, is confident that such a step will further humiliate Russia in the eyes of the world community:

“The Russian judicial system refused to comply with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to immediately release Alexei Navalny. And now it must be punished.

Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy made it clear that we ourselves do not want to go out, but if they do decide there, then we need to be mentally prepared for this. Although there are great doubts that the European bureaucrats will risk taking such a measure - the Europeans are not strong now.

Deep down, it cannot be ruled out that the Russian parliamentary delegation - and the state leadership too - really hopes for this. I do not want to take it and break off the relationship. This is, to say the least, unpleasant.

However, Mr. Tolstoy still suggested thinking about creating our own sovereign mechanisms for protecting human rights with allies, if, of course, there are such. The most interesting thing is how the bodies jointly with Belarus and, say, with Turkmenistan will look like.

But seriously, it is not clear what we are doing in the Council of Europe and other similar institutions. Probably, you should, first of all, decide for yourself what's next. We are constantly talking about the defectiveness of the West. This means that you need to be principled to the end. It's time to decide which way to go. Even if they do not exclude it now, in the future this issue will still come up.

All this is humiliating. Moreover, we have no allies left. The partners do not support the planting of oppositionists and the dispersal of rallies. Old Europe is accustomed to the fact that it is not only possible, but also necessary to express one's opinion. What is happening now is like trying to sit on two chairs. And this is quite difficult. Although the risk of further isolation is evident..."

But the chairman of the State Duma committee on international affairs Leonid Slutsky urges not to rush into a final decision:

“On February 28, 1996, Russia became the 39th member of the Council of Europe, upon joining it voluntarily assumed the obligation to harmonize the legal space in accordance with European values. Since then, the Russian Federation has become a party to more than 60 CE conventions, the basic of which is the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the more our country pursued an independent policy, without violating any norms of international law, the more they tried to expand the list of our introductory (!) Obligations and the more and more new demands sounded politicized.

It is not surprising that most of my colleagues today spoke of precisely the confrontational nature of Moscow's interaction with Strasbourg and Brussels. The Council of Europe in the Russian direction, they are convinced, has turned into a subsidiary structure of the European Union to pursue a policy of containment of our country, the ECHR, especially on the example of the last episode with Navalny, has become a committed platform for legitimizing interference in internal affairs and the competence of the judicial system of the Russian Federation, and PACE has long won reputation of the "kingdom of double standards". If such a picture persists (and it is very likely that it may intensify), the likelihood of Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe will no longer seem impossible.

It's like that. But the glass is always half empty or half full. As long as the turbulence in relations with the European Union is high, which is introducing more and more anti-Russian sanctions, until our partners in Brussels hear us, Russia could continue (even though it is very difficult!) To conduct a dialogue on the Strasbourg site and explain its position from the point of view of general continental interests. ... Everything here needs to be carefully weighed and, as they say, measured 7 times.

The Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation (approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 30, 2016) sets the task of continuing to work “within the framework of the Council of Europe as an independent universal European organization, ensuring, through its unique convention mechanisms, the unity of the legal and humanitarian space of the continent”. And, in any case, the final decision on the prospects of Russian membership in the Council of Europe will be made by the head of state..."