Russian parliamentarians do not see the possibility of resuming the work of the Russian delegation in PACE, where two anti-Russian resolutions were recently adopted, Kommersant writes.
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The publication recalls that the deputies present in the hall supported the amendments of the Ukrainian side on the non-recognition of “illegal elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation held in the territory of occupied Crimea on September 18,” and also changed the name of one of the resolutions from “Political consequences of the conflict in Ukraine” to “Political consequences of the Russian aggression in Ukraine.”
At the same time, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvineko drew attention to the fact that PACE includes 318 delegates, but the first resolution was supported by only 78 people.
In turn, the head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, told Kommersant that “PACE decisions are made by people who perceive this or that problem superficially or are engaged in settling interstate accounts, and often the first coincides with the second.”
“Moreover, this aggressive superficial majority is not a majority in the assembly. The resolution was supported by only a quarter of its payroll,” Kosachev emphasized. – Healthy forces in the assembly will simply not be allowed to find a way out of the deadlock. This is not a problem of the Russian delegation, this is a problem of the assembly.”
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said that the future participation of the Russian Federation in PACE will be difficult due to the adopted resolutions.
“We are in close contact with the five political groups of the assembly, but the likelihood of cooperation is low,” Slutsky believes.
The chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, communist Leonid Kalashnikov, is more categorical, noting that “Russia will not participate in PACE.”
“I thought so before the resolution was adopted,” Kalashnikov told the publication. – Russia has always acted as a red rag at meetings. We can safely put an end to Russia’s participation in PACE activities. No one will return, and PACE has never been useful to us at all.”