Russia's Vladimir Putin | Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images Council of Europe restores Russia’s voting rights Agreement resolves a dispute dating back to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

Russia will remain in the Council of Europe after members of the human rights watchdog reached agreement Friday to resolve a years-long dispute that began after Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Foreign ministers of the 47-nation organization overwhelmingly voted in favor of restoring Russia's voting rights, which the Council of Europe suspended after Moscow seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

In turn, Russia halted its membership payments in June 2017, ripping a hole in the organization's budget, of which Russia contributes around 7 percent.

That move put Russia at risk of suspension from the Council of Europe next month, as the body's regulations say a member country can be suspended after two years of non-payment — a worrying prospect for Russian human rights activists, as exiting the Council of Europe would have meant Russians losing access to the European Court of Human Rights.

With Friday's agreement, suspension was averted. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would resume paying membership fees, news agencies reported.

France and Germany in particular had pushed for Russia to be welcomed back into the Council of Europe.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after the vote: "It is good news that we agreed that Russia should remain in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Especially because this preserves the right of millions of Russians to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights."

The agreement was opposed by Kiev, which boycotted the foreign ministers' meeting on Friday. Six other countries — the U.K., Poland, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — also reportedly opposed the ministers' declaration, which was adopted by qualified majority.