Tensions are rising between Moscow and Strasbourg, against the backdrop of the Russian Federation’s possible exit from the Council of Europe next week, which, if decided by the Committee of 46 European foreign ministers, would be tantamount to expulsion.
Meeting in the Committee of Ministers, they are determined to move forward in this direction and decided, on Thursday 10 March, to consult the Parliamentary Assembly. This is not compulsory, but it is important to show the unity of the organisation’s statutory bodies in the face of “the aggression of the Russian Federation on the sovereign territory of Ukraine”, which constitutes “a breach of peace on the European continent on a scale unprecedented since the creation of the Council of Europe”.
The Assembly’s opinion will be given at its extraordinary meeting on 14 and 15 March, followed by a further meeting of the Committee of Ministers on 17 March. The final decision could then be taken and Russia officially excluded from the Council of Europe.
On the Russian side, the announcement seems to have been anticipated, in particular through a statement published this morning on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where it is written, among other things, that “the European Union and NATO States, hostile to Russia, abusing their absolute majority in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, are continuing the destruction of the Council of Europe and of the common humanitarian and legal space of Europe. [...] The course of events is becoming irreversible. [...] Russia will not participate in the transformation of the oldest European organisation into another platform for invocations of Western superiority and narcissism by NATO and its obedient follower, the EU. Let them enjoy talking to each other without Russia”.
Russia “will not participate” in the future of the Council of Europe, but at this stage it is not withdrawing, as no notification to that effect has been received by its Secretary General.
Surprisingly, Moscow seems to be waiting for the unilateral decision to come out of Strasbourg, preparing the ground and ultimately getting “expelled” rather than slamming the door of the Council of Europe itself, as Greece under the colonels did in 1969 in the face of threats to leave following the 1967 coup.
This attitude may be linked to another statement, this time by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who warns that “Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe implies the withdrawal from all its mechanisms”, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the Court dedicated to it.
Depriving Russian citizens of this is a heavy decision, which the Russian Federation does not necessarily wish to take alone. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)