MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Russia's intention to withdraw from the Convention against Torture is a de facto confession of crimes
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Russia's decision to initiate the denunciation of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture is in fact a confession of crimes and a desire to avoid responsibility for gross human rights violations. About this stated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that the decision to withdraw from the Convention against Torture finally puts Russia in the ranks of countries for which the value of human life and dignity is zero.

The ministry reminded that the Convention contains a preventive mechanism for regular and unannounced visits to places of detention by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to check the conditions of detention and treatment of people.

At the same time, the Russian Federation actually destroyed this mechanism by not participating in the work of the CPC and not allowing experts to enter its territory.

"This fits in with Russia's broader practice of blocking independent access, including denying the International Committee of the Red Cross full access to places of detention, including places of detention of prisoners of war. All this shows that Russia is systematically "closing" any channels of international control, trying to hide from the world the terrible truth about the torture system created in the country, and regaining its notorious reputation as an "empire of prisons," the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

The agency noted that it was Ukraine's consistent political, legal and public pressure that deprived Russia of the opportunity to imitate cooperation with torture prevention mechanisms and led to the formalization of the desire to avoid independent control.

"A country that uses torture as an integral part of its policy cannot be a party to the Convention, which is supposed to unite rule-of-law states. The responsibility of the aggressor state for numerous crimes, including torture, must be inevitable," the Foreign Ministry said, calling on the international community to act actively and without delay.

on August 26, it became known that the Russian government proposed to denounce the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture. The document states that Russia will withdraw from the Convention and its protocols.

The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture was approved by the Council of Europe in 1987. Russia ratified it in 1996 when it became a member of the Council.

  • As of June 2025, the SSU was there are 139,000 known war crimes committed by Russians. A total of 96,000 criminal proceedings have been initiated over these facts.
  • The DIU reported LIGA.netthe report says that since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has killed 274 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and only two occupiers have been sentenced.