The forced deprivation of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Council of Europe is a big step back, first of all, for Russia in the context of respect for human rights and freedoms, the rule of law for its citizens, said the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Commissioner for the ECtHR in 2016-2021, member.

According to him, this is the first precedent in the history of the Council of Europe for 75 years of existence, when a country is forcibly expelled from the membership of one of the most respected international organizations that has the confidence in the world..

“Greece was on the verge of exclusion in 1969, but she voluntarily withdrew and returned after 5 years, re-ratifying the Convention on Human Rights. The Russian Federation has already twice been limited in rights in the CE in 2000 and 2014. Let me remind you that from the very beginning of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against our country in 2014, Ukraine insisted that Russia has no place in this international institution, because in its current form it does not comply with either the UN Charter, or the European Convention, or the values \u200b\u200bof respect for human rights.. Now, finally, they understood it here too,” Ivan Lishchina noted..

The expert does not exclude that the consequence for the Russian Federation may be a deterioration in the situation with human rights in Russia itself, and the authorities may approve the decision to unilaterally denounce the relevant Convention and technically even return to the death penalty, on which a moratorium has been introduced since 1996.

“But withdrawing from the CoE and the Convention does not mean that cases where Russia is the defendant, as in the case of Ukraine, will be suspended..

Now there is information that the ECHR has suspended consideration of all cases against Russia, but it is unlikely that this will affect our interstate cases and the court should continue to consider and accept personal applications from citizens of Ukraine, including for compensation for damage from a full-scale invasion,” Ivan concluded..

Recall, on the eve of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to exclude Russia from this organization. The Council of Europe confirmed that the Russian aggression against Ukraine is a serious violation by the Russian Federation of its obligations under Article 3 of the Charter of the Council of Europe. Formally, Russia will lose its rights in the organization in 6 months - in September 2022.