As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit' from Council of Europe
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
The Russian government announced Tuesday it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine.Having essentially jumped before being expelled from the Strasbourg-based body, the Russian foreign ministry informed Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of its departure.In the history of the Council of Europe, this is only the second time a member state has announced it is leaving the organisation, the first being Greece which temporarily left in the late 1960s. "As leaders of the Council of Europe we expressed on several occasions our firm condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine," the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, the president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tiny Kox, and the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, said in a joint statement."The Committee of Ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting tomorrow morning also in the light of today’s notification by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation of the Russian leadership’s decision to withdraw from the Council of Europe," they said. Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said the exit would not affect the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and that existing European Court resolutions will continue to be implemented if they do not contradict Russian law.They alleged that EU and NATO member states had turned the Council of Europe into an "instrument for anti-Russian policies".