Moscow has no plans to withdraw from the Council of Europe, despite the situation in the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for International Affairs Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Thursday.
“Taking into consideration the double standards that PACE [the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] exercises, Russia’s delegation has stopped its activities in the Assembly,” he pointed out. “This is the reason why we made a decision to freeze the remaining part of our 2017 contribution,” Slutsky added. “However, Russia still remains a member of the Council of Europe and has no plans to withdraw, as it continues activities in all other institutions of the Council,” the senior Russian MP noted.
Being a Council of Europe member, Russia falls into the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and continues to cooperate with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Slutsky added.