As a result of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s government intends to withdraw from the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry delivered a list of international organizations to parliament Tuesday, with instructions to evaluate it and break any “obligations [or] treaties that do not provide advantage, but cause harm to our country,” according to deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy.
According to Russian news agencies, the list includes the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.
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.