The Federal Law terminates the validity of the Council of Europe’s international treaties with regard to the Russian Federation.
On February 25, 2022, the CoE Committee of Ministers adopted a resolution suspending the Russian Federation from its right of representation on the Council of Europe statutory bodies.
Under these circumstances, on March 15, 2022, the Russian Federation officially notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe of its intention to withdraw from the Council of Europe invoking Article 7 of the Statute of the Council of Europe (which regulates the procedure for voluntary withdrawal), as well as to denounce the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
However, on March 16, 2022, the Committee of Ministers, in gross violation of the Statute of the Council of Europe, decided to terminate Russia's membership in the Council of Europe with immediate effect.
The Russian Federation assumes that the said Convention and other CoE international treaties ceased to be valid with regard to Russia on March 16, 2022.
The amount of Russia’s contribution to the budgets of the Council of Europe and its partial agreements for 2022 was to be about 33.7 million euros. In view of the termination of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe, Russia decided to pay contributions only for the period of its membership, which was from January 1 to March 15, 2022. The total amount was about 5.7 million euros.