The history of relations between Russia and the Council of Europe began shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the historic visit of the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Strasbourg in July of 1989. In a famous speech, he developed his concept of a “Common European House”, which had been outlined before he took office in 1985. The ovation that followed was memorable, but no one at the time imagined the geopolitical upheavals that would lead to the implosion of the USSR, which became official on 25 December 1991.
As early as January 1992, the Russian Federation was granted special guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and, the following May, Moscow applied for membership, which was accepted in January 1996 despite the war in Chechnya.
Russia, officially a “major contributor” to the organisation’s budget, was then represented in all Council of Europe bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights, after its ratification of the Convention in 1998. Although it is the only Member State that has not legally abolished the death penalty by merely suspending it, its citizens have been able to have recourse to the Strasbourg judges and - at least initially - to have their governments comply with the judgments.
If, at the beginning, Russia relied on the Council of Europe to advance its democratic agenda, it also quickly saw the vast pan-European platform as a powerful vector of influence, with 39 member countries when it joined and 47 before it was excluded on 16 March (see EUROPE b12912A4).
Over the course of more than two decades, it will end up denouncing Western policies that it will describe up until the last days as “double standards” before castigating an organisation that would have become “a channel of political pressure” used by “a few countries” to “lecture others”, or even “a platform for incantations on Western superiority and narcissism”, according to a statement published on 10 March on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It was undoubtedly the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Russian intervention in the Donbass that marked the shift from dialogue to confrontation between Moscow and the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe pursued the policy of reaching out to the end, believing that it was its responsibility as the only international forum where parliamentarians and representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian governments could exchange views. But it ended up regretting this.
On Tuesday, during the debates on the imminent expulsion of Russia, many MEPs apologised for not having listened to their Ukrainian counterparts, or more generally those from the former Eastern bloc, who had done everything in their power, but in vain, to prevent the Russian delegation from returning to the Chamber after the suspension of its voting rights decided in 2014.
The sixteen members of the Russian delegation returned in 2019 (see EUROPE 12257/22, 12268/20), confident of their strength. The Skripal and Navalny cases then added to Moscow’s disregard for the Court’s judgments and other reports and proceedings related to Russian violations of the Rule of law, democracy and human rights. The credentials of the Russian delegation to the Assembly were once again challenged in January and finally validated...
Everyone thought that cohabitation would be tumultuous, but possible. No one imagined, or wanted to imagine, that on 24 February Russia would cross the red line by invading Ukraine with weapons.
Gorbachev’s dream of a ‘Common European home’ collapsed and, for the first time in its 70-year history, the Council of Europe itself excluded one of its member states.
This is an earthquake for it.
Created in 1949 to promote and consolidate peace in Europe between states committed to settling their differences without recourse to arms, it is now facing war for the first time in its history.
It will have to redefine its role if it wants to remain credible in its promotion of democratic security and it will have to redefine its role with regard to human rights defenders who are more vulnerable than ever, in Russia, but also in Belarus, a country with which it broke off all its partnerships on Thursday (see EUROPE 12913/11). It will also have to stand by Ukraine more than ever, with which it concluded an action plan in 2015.
Russia, for its part, will only rejoin the Organisation on the basis of a new application and “after a radical change in the direction taken by its leaders”, the report adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday already announced.
In other words, the Council of Europe will not be repeating the Russian gamble any time soon. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)