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355523
Wed, 01/28/2015 - 13:13
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Russia could leave Council of Europe if voting rights at PACE not restored - upper house speaker

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Russia’s upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko has not ruled out that Russia could abandon the Council of Europe if the delegation's rights at PACE are not fully restored for the new session. "If a discriminatory decision against the Russian delegation is taken, we will not participate in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)," the Federation Council speaker said. Matviyenko stressed that Moscow needs no "charity" and if this "bacchanalia" continues, "we will possibly challenge the wisdom of Russia’s participation in the Council of Europe as a whole," she said. "If we face a tough anti-Russian stance that Russia’s delegation should be deprived of certain powers, including the right to vote, then we should leave PACE for this period without indulging those anti-Russian forces who are whipping up tensions," Matviyenko said. Meanwhile, the senator said there is no overwhelming majority at PACE in support of the anti-Russian stance as many delegates who represent various countries understand what is really happening in Ukraine. "I am sure that they will oppose such a discriminatory measure," she said. PACE, one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe, an international organization that has 47 member states, is due to consider on Wednesday the issue of restoring the voting rights of the Russian delegation in the Assembly. The discussion will focus on the draft resolution based on a report by Austrian delegate Stefan Schennach, who chairs the PACE monitoring committee. The document says that the Ukrainian conflict cannot be resolved "without a full-fledged participation and the political will of Russia." The draft resolution acknowledges the need for a constructive dialogue between PACE and Russia and therefore suggests "ratifying the powers of the Russian delegation" and returning it the rights to vote. PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the powers to vote and excluded it from all of its governing bodies through to January 2015 at a session in April 2014. The move came after Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum. In response, the members of the Russian delegation left the session before it was officially over and refused to take part in the Assembly’s activities. The Russian parliamentary delegation has not visited Strasbourg since then, thus abstaining from the summer and autumn sessions in 2014. The sanctions, which have been proposed to be extended in 2015, include the ban on the participation in PACE electoral missions, the appointment of Russian delegation members as rapporteurs and the representation at the Assembly bodies. PACE Monitoring Committee member Leonid Slutsky said Tuesday the proposed sanctions against Russia’s delegation are "formal and non-sensitive," adding that the key issue is the restoration of the delegation’s voting rights. Read more

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