Interview of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Vershinin to the ITAR-TASS News Agency on the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption, December 9, 2023

Question: Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, which was established on the occasion of the opening for signature of the UN Convention against Corruption in Merida, Mexico, in 2003. How do you assess our country's participation in this agreement 20 years later?

Sergey Vershinin: The UN Convention against Corruption is the only universal treaty that regulates all aspects of anti-corruption efforts and international cooperation. Russia was among the first countries to join it in 2003 and ratified it in full three years later.

Participation in the Convention has in my ways spurred the creation and proper functioning of the anti-corruption architecture as well as the systematic improvement of relevant legislation. The National Anti-Corruption Strategy and complementary plans have become available in our country, and a comprehensive institutional system has been formed. Efforts to prevent and detect corrupt practices are being refined, and special educational programmes are being implemented at educational institutions. International experts acknowledge the progress made by our country in this area as part of transparent and unbiased review mechanisms.

The relevance and high value of the treaty are constantly confirmed by the steadily growing number of its participants. With Barbados joining it in October, their number reached 190. No doubt, the figure will be even more impressive by the next anniversary of the Convention.

Question: This year marks a double anniversary. Tomorrow, the 10th session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption will open in Atlanta, GA. You will head the Russian delegation. How did the preparations for the event go? What priorities does our country plan to promote?

Sergey Vershinin: The conference remains the only universal platform for open and constructive discussions of the most significant issues related to the implementation of the convention. However, in the last two years, the US-led Western countries have been doing everything to politicise the convention mechanisms. We firmly reject such attempts and, in conjunction with our like-minded partners, work on shaping a constructive agenda geared towards practical problem-solving within the forum's mandate.

The preparation for the 10th session was quite challenging for our delegation. We vigorously opposed persistent attempts by the United States and its satellites to manipulate the course of negotiations on the final documents of the event. Our diplomats consistently upheld the principles of equality and consideration of the interests of all countries as part of a transparent preparatory process.

Strengthening international regulations for asset return is among the priorities which we plan to advance during the session. For many years now, international organisations have noted a lack of progress in this field. They point out that globally only 1 percent of the total amount of illegal financial flows is seized and becomes public revenue. Repatriating such funds is an even more challenging endeavour. This is due to the selective and politically motivated approach practiced by the states where criminals hide their illegal assets, as they decide who to return the seized property to and who not. Furthermore, the practice of imposing certain terms and conditions for returning assets to the countries of origin has become more widespread, which violates the principles of respect for state sovereignty and equal cooperation.

Hence, Russia is strongly in favour of eliminating gaps in international law norms and reaching specific agreements on ways to reinforce the convention to ensure the effective functioning of the international legal regime for asset return based on the principles of fairness and due consideration of the interests of developing countries.

Question: It was not easy for Russia to preserve its positions in international anti-corruption formats in 2023. Thus, the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption has been denounced. What can you say about the results of the work done in the outgoing year? What are the priorities for 2024?

Sergey Vershinin: Indeed, many relevant formats are reeling from the collective West’s consistent policy of politicising international anti-corruption cooperation.

Last March, Russia denounced the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. We had to take this decision due to the Council of Europe’s tough line on ousting our country from common European legal space. We were interested in continuing cooperation against corruption but this was completely impossible in the conditions that had been created for us. Russia was deprived of the right to be a fully-fledged participant in the work of the Group of the States against Corruption (GRECO), a monitoring body of the convention. It was turned from a subject to an object of assessment. To prevent such discrimination against our country, it was decided to denounce the convention and withdraw from the group, thereby depriving it of the legal grounds to review Russia.

That said, the implemented provisions of the convention will remain part of our legal system. Exiting one treaty also does not mean exiting the global anticorruption political and legal space that is primarily created by the UN Convention against Corruption. Russia also remains a party to other effective agreements, in part, those concerning mutual legal aid and extradition.

Our country remains actively involved in the relevant formats in BRICS, G20 and APEC. Our country will chair BRICS in 2024 and we are already drafting a programme of further work to maintain continuity in the priorities of the rotating chairs and to consider the interests of states that will join our association next year.

We are paying much attention to strengthening regional cooperation. In this context, we expect the agreement on anticorruption cooperation of the CIS states signed last year to be ratified as soon as possible.

We will continue working hard at international anti-corruption venues to promote cooperation with interested countries on the principles of equality and mutual consideration of national interests.