Moscow March 10 2022: Russia has left the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has said.
In a statement, the ministry said European Union and Nato states were “unfriendly towards Russia”, accusing them of misusing their majority on the council’s committee of ministers.
The Russian ministry claimed these states “continue their policy of destroying the Council of Europe and the shared humanitarian and legal space in Europe”.
“Russia has no intention of tolerating these undermining actions performed by the collective West in order to impose a ‘rules-based order’ to replace international legislation violated by the US and its satellites,” the statement continued.
The Council of Europe is Europe’s oldest political body and aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law across the continent.
It emerged in 1949 from the ashes of World War II.
