Russia withdraws from the convention on the prevention of torture and inhuman treatment

The decision was enshrined in a decree issued by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and has already been sent to President Vladimir Putin for further submission to the State Duma, RBC-Ukraine reported citing a government portal and The Moscow Times.

It is about denunciation of the document adopted on 26 November 1987 and signed by Russia in 1996, after which it was ratified in 1998. The Convention obliges state parties to prevent torture and other inhuman treatment and to allow independent inspectors of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) into prisons, pre-trial detention centres, psychiatric clinics and colonies to inspect conditions of detention.

After Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe in March 2022, the country effectively ceased to fulfil its obligations under the Convention, although it remained formally a party to it.

The CPT has repeatedly stated that the Russian authorities have ignored requests for co-operation, including the provision of information on the deaths of prisoners, in particular opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in February 2024 in the Polar Wolf colony.