On April 17 PACE adopted the Resolution 2540 (2024) that analysed the nature of Kremlin’s regime and stated that “invading Georgia in 2008, unlawfully annexing the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the City of Sevastopol, and violently occupying parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in 2014, interfering in foreign electoral processes and, finally, by launching its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 and threatening those assisting Ukraine’s self-defence with nuclear war, the regime of Vladimir Putin has fully committed to war on democracy”.
By doing so, Resolution stressed, Russia seeks to re-establish the former Soviet sphere of influence and take revenge on States which rejected its totalitarianism in favour of democracy and human rights.
By Resolution 2540 (2024) PACE condemned Russia’s rhetoric and emphasised that incitement to commit the crime of aggression, genocide and war crimes is a crime in itself. PACE called in this act on all States “to treat Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox hierarchy as an ideological extension of Vladimir Putin’s regime complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity conducted in the name of the Russian Federation and the Russkiy Mir ideology”.
Resolution 2540 (2024) stressed that on 17 March 2024, “Putin was declared the winner of the so-called presidential election, which from the outset was not free and fair, with no genuine opponent to Vladimir Putin even being permitted to run. Moreover, polling stations for this election were opened in sovereign Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation …in gross violation of the United Nations Charter and the principle of sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of all States”.
Resolution 2540 (2024) stressed that PACE does not recognise the legitimacy of Putin as the President of Russia and reiterated its call on Council of Europe member and observer States and the European Union “to cease all contact with him, except for humanitarian purposes and in the pursuit of peace”.
Let us remind that our Association’s submission, prepared by Professor Borys Babin and describing fake “Putin’s re-election” at Russia-occupied territories, was sent to all key Council of Europe institutions, including the PACE strutures.
PACE considered in Resolution 2540 (2024) that Russia “by means of fascist-style propaganda, …has introduced a cult of personality around the figure of Vladimir Putin”. PACE also stressed that all Russia’s imperialistic aggression phenomena, “combined with an omnipresent security apparatus, mass surveillance of society and brutal repression against peaceful protests, have turned the Russian Federation into what the Assembly considers a totalitarian State, whose modus operandi resembles that of a criminal organisation”.
