By Galina Korol | 2025-09-17

Russia is poised to quit Europe's anti-torture convention, stripping away one of the last symbolic checks on its prison system already haunted by survivor accounts of abuse.

In late August, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the decree authorizing the move. On September 17, the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, unanimously approved the withdrawal. The measure now goes to the Federation Council and then to President Vladimir Putin for his signature before it becomes law.

The State Duma Committee on International Affairs head Leonid Slutsky claimed the draft law is aimed at "countering the blatant discrimination against Russia within the structures of the Council of Europe ... and upholding the principles of equality and balance of interests," according to Interfax.

Torture of soldiers

As Russian authorities move to quit the convention, Ukrainian outlet Suspilne in August published a chilling account of the torture of 33-year-old soldier Vladyslav.

He and seven fellow servicemen were captured by Russian troops at a Ukrainian position near Pokrovsk.

Instead of being protected as prisoners of war, the captives were tortured. Their eyes were gouged out, lips, ears and genitals cut off. Vladyslav's throat was slit.

Believing the men were dead, Russian soldiers dumped the mutilated bodies into a pit, covered them with debris and left. That mistake saved Vladyslav's life.

"In the trash there was a broken bottle. And so he managed -- his hands were tied behind his back -- to cut the rope," Vladyslav's wife told Suspilne.

Grievously wounded, the soldier tied fabric around his throat and spent nearly five days crawling toward Ukrainian lines. He was eventually found barely alive. He has since undergone surgery in a hospital in Dnipro and now communicates with relatives by writing notes. Doctors hope he will soon regain his voice.

The harrowing case is just one of many. In March, Director of the Ukrainian Health Ministry's Forensic Examination Unit Inna Padiei revealed that 80% of repatriated bodies from Russian pretrial detention centers and prisons showed signs of torture.

No harm

Adopted by the Council of Europe in 1987, the convention allows the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to inspect detention facilities like prisons and psychiatric institutions. Russia joined in 1996 to project an image of integration with the civilized world, enabling committee visits and reports that exposed violations.

The European committee's last mission to Russia was in fall 2021, lawyer and human rights activist Nikolai Polozov told Kontur. No independent monitoring has taken place since. After its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, "Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe, and this convention de facto ceased to operate," he said.

"But now the authorities are simply cleaning up the legal framework to allow the [Federal Security Service] FSB to build their own completely unmonitored prisons and abuse people there." He added that existing laws already support such practices.

"We are well aware of the methods the FSB uses to get results when solving criminal cases. This includes torture," he said.

In August, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the denunciation of the convention would not cause "any harm" to Russian citizens.

"Russia remains committed to its obligations in the field of international human rights," she said, as cited by RBC. But reality in Ukraine points to a different conclusion.

Independent experts appointed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council have said Russia is using "sexualized torture" against civilians in Ukraine as part of a "deliberate and systematic policy" of intimidation in occupied territories.

Apart from the European Convention, other international treaties prohibit torture, including the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

However, according to Yaroslav Kuts, a lawyer and head of the law firm A2KT, the UN has no mechanisms for enforcing its decisions regarding torture.

"Even if the UN ever votes to affirm that Russia is a country that encourages or uses torture, there will be no consequences," Kuts told Kontur.

Russian opposition journalist Alexander Nevzorov called the UN convention "a decorative, worthless scrap of paper." In an August Telegram post, he highlighted what he described as hypocrisy in Russian law, noting that Article 286 of Russia’' Criminal Code states it is not torture to inflict pain or suffering resulting from "lawful actions" by officials.

Systemic torture

"Russia's treatment of captured Ukrainians absolutely does not stand up to criticism," said Polozov. He noted that Moscow is violating not only European conventions but also international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions, which Russia is obliged to follow.

An Associated Press investigation published in May 2025 found that more than 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war have died in Russian custody since the invasion began, citing torture, starvation and denial of medical care.

Rights advocates say the true death toll in Russia's network of secret prisons will likely never be known.

"An entire system of illegal prisons has been created where Ukrainians are denied legal status," Polozov said, noting that both civilians and soldiers are held.

He added that authorities have invented the status of "person detained for opposing a special military operation," though it appears in no Russian law.

"Some have been in this situation for years -- no communication with the outside world, subjected to torture and humiliation," he said. The number of such captives remains unknown.

According to Polozov, these prisons often have no official address and are not publicly listed. He believes they are hidden in hangars or abandoned industrial sites.

"We tried to track them down at least through food purchases, because they need to feed the prisoners somehow … It's all classified," he said.

Such "secret prisons" typically come to light only by accident, such as when fragments of trial records reveal where a detainee was held.

Ukrainian rights activist Oleksandra Dvoretska told Kontur that by quitting the anti-torture convention, Russia is severing ties with a world that respects human rights.

"By demonstratively withdrawing, Russia is announcing torture as state policy for everyone under its control," she said.

Polozov added: "I am more than certain that this system of secret prisons Russia is building for Ukrainians will also be used for Russians after the war."