Russian lawmakers have voted to take Moscow out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights after more than 20 years as a member of the Council of Europe, the continent’s top rights organisation. 

The Russian state Duma approved two bills, one removing the country from the court’s jurisdiction and a second setting 16 March as the cut-off point, with rulings against Russia made after that date not to be implemented. 

After the vote, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said: 

"The European Court of Human Rights has become an instrument of political battle against our country in the hands of Western politicians. Some of the court’s decisions were in direct contradiction to the Russian constitution, our values and our traditions”, he said in a statement. 

Appeals to the ECHR had become a last resort for plaintiffs in several high-profile cases rejected by Russian courts, and so today’s move marks an end to what many activists saw as the last hope for justice.