Photo:
RIA Novosti
The speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Valentina Matvienko said that the foreign Ministry of the country made absolutely the right decision regarding contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe (CE) in 2017, reports RIA “Novosti”.
According to her, this action is a signal for the Council that the situation continues to deteriorate.
“I think that the Ministry of foreign Affairs made absolutely the right decision. It was a signal to the Council of Europe and not only the PACE that the situation continues to deteriorate,” she said.
Earlier, the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov held telephone talks with Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and said that Moscow decided to suspend the payment of contribution to the budget of the CE in 2017.
In turn, the Senator Alexei Pushkov said that the suspension of the payment of a contribution to the Council of Europe by Russia is a “qualitative shift”.