Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the letter from Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

The Foreign Ministry is receiving requests from the Russian media to comment on the letter sent by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov regarding our country’s obligations to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

Before I comment on the letter, it is necessary to study it in detail. Unfortunately, the Council of Europe has taken the path of “megaphone diplomacy” when communicating with us. Strasbourg rushed to make the letter public, and then they published it at almost the same time they sent it to the official Russian representatives.

This clearly shows that it is not about a desire to begin a constructive dialogue with our country, but about yet another propaganda campaign. The point is apparently to show that the Council of Europe allegedly cares about human rights in Russia while we try to wriggle out of fulfilling our international obligations. In the meantime, they overlook the fact that this organisation has destroyed the common cooperation in humanitarian law on the continent with their own hands to please a Russophobic majority, thus making Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe and participation in its main conventions impossible.