PACE chose wealthy Russia over impoverished Ukraine
A resolution adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which allows the Russian delegation to return to PACE, speaks of the correct position of the Russian Federation in relation to the West.
Moscow political scientist Sergei Markov stated this on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The situation with the Council of Europe shows us that Russia’s tough and principled position towards Europe always achieves results.
They deprived us of the right to vote, we said: “Why should we pay money to an organization in which we do not have the right to vote?” Moreover, we said: “Why should we recognize the decisions of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Secretary General, if we cannot vote for him? Let's go away." They replied: “Okay, sorry, we were wrong, let’s do it differently,” the expert noted.
In turn, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe, Ivan Soltanovsky, confirmed serious progress in the return of Russia to PACE, but emphasized that it is too early to celebrate victory.
“I cannot say what the mood of the Ukrainian “brothers” is. But judging by the press and the reviews that you just gave in the program, the mood is semi-hysterical and the mood is to organize another crusade against us. But times change, as demonstrated by the decisions of the last rules committee, which built on the momentum generated by the Helsinki ministerial meeting. And in Helsinki it was precisely said about the equality of rights and duties of all member states of the Council of Europe in two statutory bodies - the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly.
The mood is changing towards realism, and the latest decisions of the rules committee, in fact, exclude from the list of sanctions key issues of voting, representation, the right to speak and make proposals. This is very important; now it is necessary for the Parliamentary Assembly, at its opening on June 2, to confirm the decision of the Rules Committee. In essence, this is, of course, a big shift, but at this stage we will not play the winners’ march from Verdi’s La Traviata, we must bring the matter to the end,” he added.
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