russia is expelled from the Danube Commission and fined
1 March 2024 23:01
on 1 March, Russia was expelled from the Danube Commission and fined for non-payment of contributions. This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Kommersant Ukrainsky reports 
According to him, the organisation decided at its hundredth anniversary session in December last year “during the first Ukrainian presidency that Russia’s actions were incompatible with the Belgrade Convention”.
“Russia had until 29 February to withdraw from the organisation on its own. However, the aggressor did not have the courage to do so. As a result, starting today, the Commission’s member states will no longer officially recognise their obligations to Russia under the founding Belgrade Convention.”
– kuleba said on his page on social networking site X.
In addition, for the first time in its history, the Danube Commission fined Russia for non-payment of contributions after it was deprived of its powers in the organisation in March 2022.
Kuleba called on all international organisations to follow suit and isolate Russian diplomats.
What is the Danube Commission?
The Danube Commission is an international intergovernmental organisation established by the Convention on the Regime of Navigation on the Danube, signed in Belgrade on 18 August 1948.
Its main objectives are to ensure and develop free navigation on the Danube for merchant ships flying the flags of all states in accordance with the interests and sovereign rights of the states parties to the Belgrade Convention, as well as to strengthen and develop economic and cultural ties between these states and with other countries.
The members of the Danube Commission are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
The observer countries are Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Turkey and Turkey.
The Commission has been based in Budapest since 1954. The official languages are German, Russian and French.
Ukraine became a member of the organisation in 1949. The grounds for membership were the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR on the ratification of the Convention on the Regime of Navigation on the Danube of 18 February 1949.
