One of the basic principles of the Council of Europe is the equality of Nations and peoples, therefore, the Russian parliamentarians are not able to work on the site of the PACE in terms of restrictions, said state Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin.
MOSCOW, 1 Feb. Russia is opposed in principle to the site of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the conditions of limited powers, but even more actively interacts currently with parliamentarians of the countries in the Council of Europe and participating in the activities of the Assembly, said the speaker of the state Duma Sergey Naryshkin.
“We are fundamentally opposed to working on site PACE, when our delegation is in fact limited in their rights, whereas one of the basic principles of the Council of Europe is the equality of Nations and peoples,” Naryshkin said at a meeting with young scientists of Moscow state law University named after Kutafin.
“Because of this we have suspended the cooperation on this site, despite the fact that we, of course, can be even more active in working with parliamentarians of all countries that belong to the Council of Europe and participate in the work of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe”, — said the speaker of the state Duma.
According to Naryshkin, it is impossible to talk about equality when a Russian delegation is deprived of a fundamental right — the right to vote.
“That’s just absurd. How can the parliamentary delegation and the Deputy should be denied the right to vote? This right stems from the nature of the parliamentary mandate, which was handed over to the Deputy of any country is its voters, not any international parliamentary organization,” said the speaker of the state Duma
