The Russian State Duma has voted to withdraw from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, Interfax reported.

The bill to denounce the convention was introduced by President Vladimir Putin. An explanatory note said the decision was prompted by the Council of Europe’s “refusal to seat a new Russian member on the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.” Since December 2023, it added, Moscow has been unable to fully participate in the committee’s work.

“The withdrawal from this international treaty will not weaken Russia’s legal guarantees against torture, since the country remains party to a number of key conventions and protocols that set substantive standards for protection and provide mechanisms to monitor compliance with those standards,” Alexander Zhukov, first deputy speaker of the State Duma, told reporters.

The member states of the Council of Europe adopted the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1987. Russia ratified it in 1998, two years after joining the Council of Europe. The Russian government drafted the proposal to leave the treaty in late August.

According to the human rights project Department One, Russia’s withdrawal means it will no longer be required to admit international inspectors to its prisons, and Russian prisoners will lose the ability to file complaints with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.