MOSCOW, May 24 (RAPSI) - Valery Zorkin, Chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court, has left the the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. His deputy Sergei Mavrin followed after him, Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.

"Our presence in the Commission was essential while Europe was implementing far-reaching reforms. This stage is over now, while the Constitutional Court's workload has grown. We come across a collision when we have to speak up in the Commission about rule of law which is afterwards considered by the Constitutional Court, while it is forbidden by the law on the Constitutional Court," the newspaper quoted Zorkin as saying reasoning his grounds for leaving.

Zorkin has been a member of the Venice Commission since 2006, and his deputy Sergei Mavrin has been there since 2010.

According to the commission website, they have been replaced by Talia Khabriyeva, Director of the Government Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law Studies, and her deputy Vladimir Lafitsky.

Zorkin’s decision is allegedly a reaction to the politicization of Venice Commission’s activities, the newspaper reports, citing its own sources close to the Kremlin.

The Venice Commission is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law, such as university professors and higher court judges appointed by their governments for a term of four years. The commission had earlier criticized a number of amendments to the Russian legislation on rallies that had caused a public outcry in 2012.