The Russian Federation and the Council of Europe

Date of accession
The Russian Federation became a member of the Council of Europe on 28 February 1996.

Committee of Ministers
- Foreign Minister Igor IVANOV represents the Russian Federation in the Committee of Ministers.
- Ambassador Alexandre K. ORLOV has been the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe since July 2001.

Parliamentary Assembly
The Russian Federation is represented in the Parliamentary Assembly by a delegation of 18 representatives and 18 substitutes.
- Dmitri ROGOZIN (EDG) is head of the delegation.
- Valery SUDARENKOV (SOC) is Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President.

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe
The Russian Federation is represented in the Congress by a delegation of 18 representatives and 18 substitutes.
- Vladimir VARNAVSKIY (ILGD), Omsk, is the head of the delegation.

Budget
The Council of Europe's ordinary budget for 2002 is € 169,000,000. The contribution of the Russian Federation is € 21,300,591 (i.e. 12.6039 %).

Human Rights
The Russian Federation ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and recognised the right of individual petition on 5 May 1998.
- The judge for the Russian Federation at the European Human Rights Court is Anatoli KOVLER.
- Number of cases against the Russian Federation referred to the Court in 2001:
Provisional files opened : 4239 (1987 in 2000)
Applications registered : 2108 (1325 in 2000)
Judgments on merits - (- in 2000)

Conventions
To date, the Russian Federation has ratified and signed the following conventions

Co-operation programmes and the Russian Federation
As long ago as 1989, the Council of Europe reacted to political developments in central and eastern Europe by setting up a number of specific legal co-operation programmes, open to all its member states and also to applicant states. These programmes are designed to help countries to press ahead with their institutional, legislative and administrative reforms
Furthermore, specific programmes, jointly funded by the European Commission and the Council of Europe, have been - or are being - implemented in certain countries, the aim being to establish an institutional and legal framework consistent with European standards.
For more information, see http://www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_Affairs/ (“About us” section then “Co-operation programmes”).

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Council of Europe has also been implementing programmes of assistance for the development of the democratic stability, designed for promoting local and regional democracy in the member states of the Council of Europe.
For more information, see http://www.local.coe.int (“Assistance programmes” section).

The Council of Europe Information and Documentation Centre :

Mr Nikolaï TOPORNIN
Director of the Information and Documentation Centre 
on the Council of Europe in State Institute for International Relations in Moscow (MGIMO)
Pr. Vernadskogo 76
RU - 117454 MOSCOW 

Telephone: +7-095/434.90.77
Fax: +7-095/434.90.75
E-mail: coemoscow@dionis.iasnet.ru
Internet: www.coe.ru

Regional Centres :

Ural
Mr Lev LAZOUTIN
Ul. Kolmogorova 54
RU - 620034 IEKATERINBOURG 

Telephone: +7-3432/45.72.32
Fax: +7-3432/45.92.25
Email : sovural@rest.ru

Volga
Mr Oleg LITOVCHENKO
Ul. Volskaya 16
RU - 410028 SARATOV 

Telephone: +7-8452/25.28.43
Fax: +7-8452/24.16.71
Email : litovchenko@overta.ru

Saint-Petersburg
Mr Dimitri BARYSHNIKOV
Smolny Str 1/3 – Entr. 8
RU - 193060 SAINT-PETERSBOURG 

Telephone : +7-812/276.61.16
Fax: +7-812/276.62.29
Email : barydmit@dip.pu.ru

Updated: 17 April 2002