The state Duma will not form a delegation to participate in PACE
MOSCOW, 17 Dec — RIA Novosti. This year the state Duma will not form a delegation to participate in the work of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said in a statement to the lower house.
Deputies noted that the interaction of Russia with the Council of Europe at parliamentary level because of lingering anti-Russian campaign was actually suspended, and the PACE itself was in a deep systemic crisis.
“In this situation, the State Duma sees no grounds to return the Russian delegation to PACE and the resumption of payment of the Russian Federation contributions to the budget of the Council of Europe”, — stated in the text.
It is emphasized that this decision was made “in the interests of our citizens and the Russian state.”
The opinion of deputies
The head of the faction “United Russia” Sergei Neverov said that after taking the statements of politicians and experts will begin to wonder whether this means that the state Duma is refusing Russia’s presence in Europe, abandons democratic values.
“In fact, everything is absolutely the opposite. Just Russia is fighting inside the PACE for democratic values, for the right of parliaments, regardless of, like the point of view of this Parliament or not satisfied, to represent the interests of their country and its citizens,” he said.
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that the next step is the withdrawal of Russia from the Council of Europe.
Communist party Deputy Dmitry Novikov said that the PACE has become one of the tools of the cold war. And the leader “Fair Russia” Sergei Mironov said that Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe, from the point of view of the faction “is absolutely useless and costly”.