Russia risks losing its seat on the Council of Europe if it passes a bill to allow the Constitutional Court to block rulings from the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva said on Monday.
The Kommersant daily reported on Monday that the lower house of the Russian parliament is considering a bill "on the protection of national sovereignty," which allows the Constitutional Court to block ICHR rulings on human rights violations if it considers them unconstitutional.
"If these laws are adopted it will lead to an end of our presence on the Council of Europe," Alekseyeva, head of human rights group Moscow Helsinki Group, told RIA Novosti.
She said the bill is aimed at "finding another loophole in carrying out the rulings of the Strasbourg Court."
