End of monitoring in Russia
Moscow officially withdrew from the Council of Europe’s European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on Nov. 1. This withdrawal follows a notification the Russian authorities sent to the Council of Europe regarding their decision to denounce the convention on Oct. 30, 2025. Under the notification procedure, the denunciation takes effect one year after that notice. Alan Mitchell, the president of the CPT, stated in a Council of Europe publication that "the withdrawal of the Russian Federation marks the end of the CPT’s monitoring mandate in the country." He added that it also "marks the end of any independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty inside the Russian Federation."
The Council of Europe said it received numerous accounts of alleged acts of torture by Russian authorities since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. However, the CPT could not conduct a visit to the Russian Federation to examine the situation for itself because Russian authorities did not cooperate. This lack of oversight follows a period where Russia remained a signatory of the convention while continuing war crimes in occupied Ukrainian territories. U.N. human rights monitors said 96% of freed Ukrainian prisoners of war they interviewed underwent torture or abuse in Russian captivity.
Systematic abuse and recent blockades
Russia continues to commit systematic abuses against civilians in Ukraine. The latest abuse involved a blockade of Oleshky, a town in southern Ukraine located across the Dnipro River from Kherson. Hundreds of evacuees reached Ukrainian territory on Oct. 31 after a six-day ceasefire brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump. Russia previously left the Council of Europe in 2022 after the body voted to expel the country in March of that year, which occurred weeks after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Ukraine remains a signatory of the CPT alongside 45 other member states of the Council of Europe.
