The Russian government is planning to leave the WHO and World Trade Organisation as Putin continues to isolate his nation from the West following the invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry yesterday sent a list of international organisations to parliament, with orders to review it and break ‘obligations [or] treaties which do not bring benefit, but direct damage to our country,’ deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said.
The World Health Organisation and World Trade Organisation are among names on the list, Russian news agencies reported.
It comes after Western countries cut off large parts of the Russian economy from the global trade via sanctions, with hundreds of western businesses pulling out of the country to protest the war.
WHO member states have already tried to force the health body into taking action over the invasion.
Last week, they voted in favour of a non-binding resolution condemning Russian attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities, and the effect of the war on public health.
The same resolution also called on WHO chiefs to consider closing their office in Moscow and relocating it outside the country.
Russia condemned the resolution as ‘exclusively political in nature’ and said it had no bearing on healthcare provision in either country.
Plans to withdraw from the WTO have been tabled in Moscow many times before. Russia only joined the global body in 2012 after 19 years of negotiations.