photo by REUTERS
The Russian Federation officially withdrew from the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on 1 August. This is reported on the official legal portal of the rf. We would like to remind that this convention was signed in February 1995. It establishes the key principles for the treatment of national minorities in Europe, namely the prohibition of discrimination and forced assimilation, the freedom to profess one’s own religion and to speak one’s native language freely.
russia signed the convention on the protection of national minorities in 1996. But in October 2023, Vladimir Putin signed a law denouncing the convention.
Russian media at the time explained this action by saying that in 2022 the rf ‘lost the opportunity to participate in the development of decisions on issues that concern it’ and to monitor violations of the rights of ‘the Russian-speaking population abroad.