After Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe for invading Ukraine, it said it was leaving the House.
Piotr Tolstoy, head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has received a letter from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe announcing Moscow’s decision to withdraw from the Council, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
About 24 hours before that, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Dennis Smigal, called on the Council of Europe to “immediately expel” Russia from this pan-European human rights body, which is the first time something like that happens in its history.
The Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are in Kyiv
“We call for a decision on the immediate expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe”, Smegal said in a video conference call from Kyiv at a special session of the Strasbourg-based Parliamentary Assembly of Europe.
