Russian President Vladimir Putin has revoked an additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions related to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, a Russian parliamentary website cites a letter from him as saying.

The Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Convention was ratified by the Soviet Union’s Supreme Council, or parliament, in 1989.

Putin’s letter, dated Oct. 16 and addressed to the speaker of lower house of parliament on the “recall of the statement made at the ratification”, said an international commission, set up in order to investigate war crimes against civilians, “has effectively failed to carry out its functions since 1991”.

“In the current international environment, the risks of the commission’s power abuse by the states, which are acting in bad faith, are increasing significantly,” says the document cited by the website that documents laws proposed and passed by the Russian parliament.

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