President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law denouncing the Council of Europe convention on the protection of national minorities. The document was published on the official legal information portal.
The bill to withdraw from the agreement was initiated by Vladimir Putin at the end of September; on October 10, the State Duma approved it in the third and final reading. The convention was signed in 1995, Russia ratified it three years later.
The explanatory note to the bill stated that the Council of Europe “deprived Russia of the opportunity to participate and make decisions in the relevant Advisory Committee”, deal with “issues of interest” and “monitor at the international level cases of violation of the rights of national minorities, in the first place turn of the Russian-speaking population abroad.»
According to State Duma deputies, termination of participation in the treaty «will avoid discriminatory treatment of the Russian Federation within the framework of the monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe and will not harm the observance of the rights of national minorities.»
The obligations of the countries that have signed the convention include a ban on discrimination against national minorities, a ban on the policy of assimilation, as well as the creation of conditions for the preservation of culture and identity, freedom of speech, assembly, religion, expression and use of the language of national minorities in public places and their the right to establish educational institutions.
In March 2022, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe expelled the country from the organization. Russia has ceased to be a member of the treaties of the international organization, including the European Convention on Human Rights. In January 2023, Putin introduced a bill to the State Duma to terminate 21 international treaties of the Council of Europe.