Russia on Tuesday quit the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights watchdog, pre-empting possible expulsion over its attack on neighbour Ukraine.
This followed an earlier imposition of sanctions on the United States President, Joe Biden, and persons associated with him and representatives of the US leadership, on Tuesday, by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions prohibiting, among other things, entry into the United States for senior officials of the Russian Federation…From March 15, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Secretary of Defense L. Austin and 10 others are included in the Russian ‘stop list’ and are to be sanctioned in retaliation and are barred from entering Russia,” the statement said.
The head of the Russian delegation at the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly, Pyotr Tolstoy, handed a letter from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the Council’s secretary-general announcing Russia’s decision to quit the Council, the JPost reports.
According to the JPost, the Council of Europe had previously suspended Russia’s rights of representation on February 25, in response to its invasion of Ukraine, which had commenced a day prior.
“The course of events becomes irreversible. Russia does not intend to put up with these subversive actions carried out by the collective West in line with the imposition of a ‘rules-based order’ to replace international law trampled by the United States and its satellites,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
“Russia will not participate in the transformation by NATO, and the EU obediently following them, of the oldest European organisation into another platform for incantations about Western superiority and narcissism. Let them enjoy communicating with each other – without Russia.”
Founded after World War II to “promote human rights through international conventions,” and advocate for democracy and rule of law, the Council of Europe is one of the oldest European intergovernmental organisations. It has 47 member states, including Russia, according to the JPost.
Russia’s voting rights were previously suspended temporarily in 2014 over its invasion of Crimea. The Kremlin had responded by not paying its membership fees. Russia’s voting rights were, however, restored in 2019, the JPost reports.
REPORTERS AT LARGE earlier reported that the United Kingdom Government has imposed an additional 35 per cent import tariff on a swathe of Russian goods, including vodka, and banned exports of luxury products because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
