Photo:
Flickr/ Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
The head of PACE Pedro Agramunt on the eve of meetings with Russian officials on the sidelines of the IPA CIS in St. Petersburg said that the issues related to the conflict in Ukraine remain a stumbling block in relations between the Russian Federation and the Assembly.
“Hard questions, particularly concerning the conflict in Ukraine continues to remain disagreement between the parliamentary Assembly and the Russian Parliament,” said Agramunt.
“After my election I have decided to take steps for the resumption of dialogue with Russian parliamentarians to work together to find ways to resume a full and normal cooperation in the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” he said.
“These steps do not contradict the position of the parliamentary Assembly on the support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”, — said the head of PACE.
“We must remember that our relations deteriorated after Russia’s decision on Crimea. This question, as well as the role of Russia in the conflict in Ukraine will remain in our agenda because we support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and all member States of the Council of Europe…”,- said the head of PACE.
In 2014 and 2015, the PACE of accession of Crimea to Russia, adopted resolutions, in which he deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote at the session to participate in the work of statutory bodies and the monitoring of elections. In response, the Russian delegation left the PACE until the end of 2015.
In January last year, Russia decided not to send required to confirm the credentials of the delegation documents, but refused to work with the Council of Europe. This year Russia has also not sent the necessary documents.