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ALJ 2020 Lessons Learned 13 Initiative” (ESI) by establishing an external investigation which confirmed most of the allegations and led to sanctions against a number of parliamentarians involved.47 The sanction of stripping the Russian members of PACE of their voting rights after the illegal occupation of Crimea in 2014 put particular stress on the relations between the Council of Europe and the RF. The latter responded to it by boycotting the work of the Assembly by not sending their deputies anymore and not allowing any PACE rapporteurs to visit the RF; furthermore it froze its sizable financial contribution and threatened to withdraw from the Council of Europe altogether. Members of the Russian Duma, but also academia also severely criticized the judgments of the Court in certain cases like the ones related to same sex relationships.48 After a face-saving agreement reached in May 201949 the Russian PACE members returned and the RF resumed its contributions. Still fundamental differences remain and the situation of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the RF has been characterized by a continuous backsliding as can be seen by the laws on banning the propaganda of homosexuality, on declaring certain human rights NGOs as foreign agents and, in particular, the human rights situation in Chechnya. The situation of human rights in the Chechen Republic, which in the past experienced major violations during the Chechen wars, became notorious again in 2017, after several purges of LGBTI people and alleged summary executions of presumed terrorists. There were reports of a persistent pattern of torture by the security forces in Chechnya. In reaction, a group of 16 Contracting Parties of OSCE resorted to the Moscow Mechanism to enable an investigation of the allegations in a report done by a single rapporteur because the RF contrary to its obligations declined any cooperation.50 In March 2019 the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) resorted to the rare tool of a public statement, in which it made some of the findings of its visit of 2017 public and deplored that the RF authorities had not been ready to react to its findings for a long period.51 47 See Report of the Independent Investigation Body on the allegations of corruption within the Parliamentary Assembly of Apr. 15, 2018, at http://assembly.coe.int/Communication/IBAC/IBAC-GIAC-Report-EN.pdf (last visited 02.12.2020); the Assembly consequently adopted resolution 2216 (2018) of Apr. 26, 2018 declaring “zero tolerance for corruption”. 48 See Dmitri Bartenev, LGBT rights in Russia and European human rights standards, in RUSSIA AND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS, THE STRASBOURG EFFECT 326-351 (Lauri Mälksoo, Wolfgang Benedek eds. Cambridge University Press. 2018). 49 See PACE Resolution 2287 (2019) of Jun. 25, 2019 on “Strengthening the decision-making of the Parliamentary Assembly concerning credentials and voting”; see also Andrew Drzemczewski, The (Non-) Participation of Russian Parliamentarians in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: an Overview of Recent Developments, EUROPE OF RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES (2020), forthcoming; Lize R. Glas, Russia left, threatened and won: Its return to the Assembly without sanctions, Strasbourg Observers of Jul. 2, 2019, at https://strasbourgobservers.com/2019/07/02/russia- left-threatened-and-has-won-its-return-to-the-assembly-without-sanctions/ (last visited 02.12.2020). 50 See OSCE Rapporteur’s Report under the Moscow Mechanism on the alleged human Rights Violations and Impunity in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation of Dec. 13, 2018 by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Benedek, at https://www.osce.org/odihr/407402?download=true (last visited 02.12.2020). 51 Council of Europe, Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Public Statement of Mar. 11, 2019 on the Russian Federation concerning the Chechen Republic and other republics of the North Caucasian region, CP/Inf (2019)6; see Council of Europe anti-torture Committee urges the Russian Federation to carry out effective investigations into allegations of torture in the Northern Caucasian region, at https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/-/council-of- europe-anti-torture-committee-urges-the-russian-federation-to-carry-out-effective-investigations-into- allegations-of-torture-in-the-norther (last visited 02.12.2020).