Russia is preparing to leave the Council of Europe
If the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not accept constitutional changes that prohibit limiting the powers of national delegations, Russia will not return to PACE.
Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov stated this in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, commenting on the recent statement by Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjörn Jagland, who said that Russia could be expelled from the organization next year if it continues to not pay its dues.
The senator noted that since its entry into the Council of Europe, Russia has constantly been the object of attacks, harsh criticism or direct pressure in PACE.
It was also said that the crisis in relations with PACE was inevitable, since the point of this structure is to prescribe how to behave in certain situations.
“In 2014, we refused to play this game, and in January 2015 we confirmed the decision to boycott PACE meetings when sanctions were applied to us. And if the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not accept statutory changes that prohibit limiting the powers of national delegations, we will not return to PACE. Later it was decided: since we are not returning to PACE, it means that we are not paying part of our contribution. And since we are one of the main payers of the Council of Europe, the refusal to pay part of the contribution created a noticeable gap in the Council’s budget.
And now its Secretary General T. Jagland says that this could lead to our exclusion from the Council of Europe after June 2019. But there is no way out of the impasse yet in sight. Therefore, if we are convinced that PACE will not change its approaches at the beginning of next year and will continue to insist on its right to declare sanctions on Russia, then I believe that we must be ready to leave the Council of Europe on our own initiative,” the Russian politician is convinced.
He believes that in the current situation, leaving the CE poses virtually no threat to Russia.
“The loss will be a reduction in the scope of our political interaction with Europe. But this field is already very narrowed; the European Union, apparently, does not intend to abandon its sanctions against Russia. We have such relations with those countries that want to have decent relations with us, even under sanctions. We are talking about Hungary, Austria, Finland, Italy, Slovenia. And for those countries that want to see us as enemies, it doesn’t matter whether we are in the Council of Europe or not,” Pushkov emphasized.
According to him, leaving the Council of Europe will not change anything, but it will give Russia more free hands and expand the field of domestic jurisdiction, for example, on the issue of the need for the death penalty.
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