On Sunday, November 1, Russia officially withdrew from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
This was reported on the website of the Council of Europe.
Russia reported its decision to withdraw from the convention a year ago, and Putin signed a corresponding decree in September 2025. As Russian propagandists claimed, this decision was made allegedly due to the Council of Europeʼs refusal to elect a new member of the committee from Russia.
Russia joined the convention in 1998. During this time, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture visited the country 30 times and inspected more than 450 places of detention.
However, Russia was the only state party that refused to publish the inspection reports and responses. In the end, only four reports were allowed to be published. The rest, including materials from ten visits to Chechnya and the North Caucasus in 2000–2017, remained classified.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the committee has received numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment of people in places of detention by Russian officials, both in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia itself. However, due to the refusal of the Russian authorities to cooperate, the committee has been unable to conduct inspections in the country.
“The withdrawal of the Russian Federation means the end of the committee’s monitoring powers in the country. It also means the end of any independent monitoring of places of detention in Russia,” said committee president Alan Mitchell.
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