GENEVA, 19 October. The Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko at the meeting with head of the PACE Anne Brasseur called on her to do everything possible to at the January session of the PACE was taken the correct decision on the credentials of the Russian delegation.
According to Matvienko, sine qua non “the return of the Russian delegation to the work in PACE is a full restoration of our rights and powers”. “We appeal to you to use all your capabilities to the January session of the PACE adopted the correct decision. Would like our position to inform the leadership about the PACE,” said the speaker.
The decision of PACE to deprive the Russian delegation of important powers it called “absurd, biased, illegal and politicized”. “I do not exclude that the decision in respect of the Russian delegation, the decision may have been made under pressure from Washington, Brussels, some Russophobic, anti-Russian forces”, – said the Senator.
For its part, Anne Brasseur recalled that the sanctions against the Russian delegation to PACE had been taken “after the annexation of Crimea”. “For us it is a violation of international law,” she said. However, the PACE President considers that “it is necessary to continue the dialogue, to meet, to talk, to listen to each other, try to understand each other’s position”. “And only then can we find points of mutual understanding”, – said Brasseur.
Sanctions against the Russian delegation in PACE in the form of deprivation of the right to vote, the right to participate in meetings of statutory bodies and in monitoring activities were introduced in April 2014 in connection with events in Ukraine and the reunification of the Crimea with Russia. In June of 2015 at the PACE session adopted a decision on prolongation of powers of the Russian delegation with preservation of previously imposed sanctions against it. According to the head of the PACE Anne Brasseur, the question of the credentials of the Russian delegation will be discussed in January 2016. The Russian delegation of the Russian Federation after the restrictions imposed in protest of not taking part in the Assembly.
