Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a draft law that would end the requirement for Russia to notify the Council of Europe when it declares or lifts martial law.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there has been speculation about whether Putin would put Russia on a full war footing, including a declaration of martial law and full mobilization.
Russia had to notify the Secretary General of Europe's 46-member human rights organization, as well as the United Nations, if it intended to declare a state of emergency, which would restrict the rights of its citizens.
But Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe on March 16, 2022 because of the invasion and from 16 September last year, ceased to be a party to the European Convention of Human Rights. It meant that the European Court of Human Rights, which has issued hundreds of rulings against Moscow in recent years, stopped reviewing Russian cases.
A spokesman for the Council of Europe told Newsweek that because Russia is no longer a member state "it is not required" to inform the bloc "of any decision to introduce martial law."
But on Wednesday, Putin submitted a draft law to the Russian parliament, the Duma, that if passed, would end the requirement to inform the Council of Europe about implementing or ending martial law or a state of emergency. The Duma typically rubber stamps the president's proposals.
However, the bill would retain laws on informing the UN Secretary General. The draft legislation states that since March 16, 2022, "the Convention in question ceased to apply to the Russian Federation, as did the protocols ratified by Russia," state news agency Tass reported.
The Kremlin has denied it wants to implement martial law, which some nationalist military bloggers have been calling for to ensure Moscow's victory in Ukraine. During a meeting with milbloggers at the Kremlin in June, Putin insisted that "some kind of special regime or martial law does not make any sense."
Putin did call a partial draft in September 2022 to boost troop numbers in Ukraine by 300,000 and he has not rescinded this measure. This exacerbated a mass exodus of men of military age from Russia and since then, the Duma has passed legislation making it tougher for people to avoid the draft.
It includes increasing the age of conscription from 27 to 30, increasing fines for draft dodgers and issuing electronic summons, which if ignored, prevent people from leaving the country.
In October 2022, Putin declared martial law in the four regions of Ukraine that Russia claimed it had just annexed, despite not fully controlling the oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhia and Kherson.
Moscow still does not have full control over the regions, while Ukraine continues in the third month of the counteroffensive it launched to retake territory occupied by Russia.
Update 08/12/23, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a response from the Council of Europe.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
