Russian lawmakers have voted to remove Moscow from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights after more than 20 years as a member of the Council of Europe, the continent's main rights organization.
The Russian State Duma passed two bills, one removing the country from the court's jurisdiction and the second setting March 16 as a "cut-off" so that decisions against Russia taken after that date will not be enforced.
"The European Court of Human Rights has turned into an instrument of the political battle against our country in the hands of Western politicians.
Some of the court's decisions "were in direct conflict with the Russian constitution, our values and traditions," the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said in a statement.
Complaints in ECHR had become the last resort for plaintiffs in several high-profile cases that had been rejected by Russian courts, and so today's move marks the end of what many activists saw as the last hope for justice.
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