The request for Putin It is character priority And its approval is practically guaranteed, said the president of the Duma, VIACHESLAV VOLODIN.
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According to the EFE agency, Putin’s bill also proposes to denounce the two protocols attached to the agreement European approved in 1987.
Vladimir Putin attends an extraordinary virtual summit of the BRICS Nations Group (the block that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Sochi on September 8, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev / AFP).
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Russia ratified the European Agreement for Torture Prevention in 1996. However, at the end of August the prime minister of that country, Mikhail Mishustin, proposed to Putin to leave this document.
He argued that it makes no sense to remain signatory to a convention in whose committee against torture before the European Council It is not represented Russia.
The EFE agency recalled that Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022weeks after the start of the Invasion to Ukraine Ordered by Putin.
In addition, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)Russia has already banned international inspectors to access their prisons, where civil prisoners and Ukrainian War Prisonersprobably to cover up abuse and torture systematic to which the latter would be subjected.
The ISW said that it has also observed numerous indications that Russian military command is supporting war crimes on the battlefieldincluding the execution of Ukrainian war prisoners.
“The denunciation of the Convention by Russia and its probable posterior withdrawal will further formalize these already systemic practices and prevent international efforts to expose them”the ISW emphasized.
Putin’s reasons
Some of the 175 prisoners of Ukrainian war released in an exchange with Russia. (Photo of Handout / Telegram / @volodymyr Zelensky / AFP).
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The international analyst Roberto Heimovits He said to Commerce that the decision of Putin, “because If there is an important advance in human rights in the last century and a half, it is because torture pursueswhat is One of the worst human rights violations that has occurred throughout history”
Heimovits thinks that The Russian withdrawal of the Convention could have to do with looking for the Kremlin against future international research For war crimes or human rights violations, especially in Ukraine.
“There could also be two other explanations. One is that Putin and the people around him have stayed as stranded at another time, and really It does not think that torture is bad”, Heimovits said.
“A third explanation is that they believe they can adopt any measure that goes against the consensus of what the progress in human rights in the world, the advance of democracy, and that Russia is immune to the consequencesor at least the Russian government ”, He added.
Heimovits indicated that a key factor that contributes to Russia He looks emboldened and makes these types of decisions have to do with Donald Trump and his lack of determined support for Ukraine.
“They make these decisions because they see that the support of Trump Ukraine is not total, for the withdrawal of Trump’s military support to Ukraine. This has been emboldened to the Russian government ”he said.
“The Russians believe they can win the war. They have even said that they will only negotiate if Volodymyr Zelensky He goes to Moscow to accept his proposals; that is, to surrender in practice. They believe that they are a few months after a great victory, especially Putin personnel, and that this makes them think that they can take measures that go against the international consensus without any consequence ”, The analyst stressed.
The importance of the agreement against torture
He European Agreement for the Prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading penalties or treatmentapproved in 1987 and in force since 1989, it has been considered one of the most innovative instruments of the European Council in human rights.
Its main contribution was the creation of the European Committee for Torture Prevention (CPT)an independent body that has the power to visit without prior notice prisons, police stations and detention centers, Interview confidentially with inmates and formulate recommendations to inspected states.
This agreement It seeks to prevent abuse through cooperation. After each visit, the Committee delivers a report to the country examined, which can decide to make it public. Unrestricted access to detention places has allowed the CPT to first hand the conditions in which thousands of people deprived of liberty live in Europeand press governments to introduce improvements.
At the moment, 46 states are part of the treatypractically all members of the Council of Europe.
The importance of the agreement is that it was the First International Mechanism of Direct and Surprising Inspectionsand became a model for other systems, such as the UN optional protocol against torture (Opcat).
