Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Council of Europe was founded on the 5th of May 1949 by ten states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Greece and Turkey joined three months later.
The Council of Europe and the European Union are entirely separate organisations. The Council of Europe cannot make binding laws, whereas the European Union transfers legislative and executive powers from member states to EU institutions. The Council of Europe has 46 member states and focuses on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law through international treaties, while EU members additionally submit to a much higher level of political and economic integration.
The European Convention on Human Rights is an international treaty adopted in 1950 that sets out fundamental rights and freedoms. It is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, whose rulings are binding on all 46 member nations of the Council of Europe.
Russia was expelled after launching a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The council suspended Russia on the 3rd of March 2022 for violations of its Statute and the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Committee of Ministers terminated Russia's membership immediately on the 31st of December 2022, making Russia the first country ever excluded from the organisation.
The European flag, twelve golden stars arranged in a circle on a blue background, was created by the Council of Europe and has been its official symbol since 1955. The European Union adopted the same flag in the 1980s.
The caviar diplomacy scandal involved allegations that Azerbaijani government officials bribed members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A 219-page inquiry report in 2018 found that several Assembly members broke ethical rules and were strongly suspected of corruption. Italian member Luca Volonte was convicted in 2021 of accepting over 2.39 million euros in bribes from Azerbaijani officials and was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Milan.