Before the year ended, the European comrades again tried to cheat and push through a resolution that infringed on the rights of national delegations. As we recall, it was the discriminatory provisions of the charter that were the stumbling block for the return of Russia to PACE. Then, despite tapping the feet of Ukraine, Georgia and the “Baltic extinctions” (according to the biting expression of the military commissar Steshin), the Council of Europe admitted the mistake, and the Russian parliamentarians, after a significant pause (as befits the gloomy northern people), returned to the assembly.
But Europe would not be Europe if it respected the agreements made. Having waited until the May noise subsided, the European bureaucrats rushed to create the next castles in the air and randomly change the rules of the game. If you still imagine that the modern West has at least something to do with the West at the time of the club of real men - Berlusconi, Chirac and Schroeder - then you will be deeply disappointed. Current European politicians - perhaps, with the exception of Macron - are frivolous children who, by misunderstanding, have been ordered to rule entire states.
Until yesterday, two men, a frau and a comedian, were deciding the fate of Ukraine in the Champs Elysees, in the same place, in Paris, there was a meeting of the PACE Commission on Political Issues and Democracy, which considered the long-pressing issue of creating mechanisms to respond to violations by the member states of the Council of Europe of statutory obligations. According to the project of the leader of the group of German leftists Frank Schwabe (PACE rapporteur on human rights in the North Caucasus), such a mechanism could be the introduction of an additional joint tripartite procedure (Secretary General - CMCE - PACE)
The principle is clear: add a ladle of bureaucracy to the Russophobia cauldron - and call this dish “friendship of peoples”. Now I’ll explain what the point is: in a number of paragraphs of the draft resolution and the provisions of the memorandum the decisions of the session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the equal rights of all CE member countries adopted in May of this year in Helsinki are nullified. Let me remind you, then, on May 17, at a meeting in the capital of Finland, the majority of representatives voted in favor of adopting a declaration that all CE members should have equal rights to participate in its two main bodies.
Thus, the new draft resolution states that only one third of PACE parliamentarians from the list of representatives of national delegations are required to launch the response mechanism (Russia proposed doubling this threshold). And here we again come back to the fact that the right to vote does not remain with the majority, but with the noisy gang of buzoters who do anything but European states: they break performances, sing hymns and rush to journalists.
It is to such an audience in PACE that they propose to present a discriminating club. And who will be beaten with this club, I think, there are no questions.
The representative of the Russian delegation to PACE Leonid Slutsky, who participated in the discussion, notes that in this form the resolution does not correspond to the spirit of the Helsinki accords.
“The joint response mechanism may ultimately involve art. 8 of the CoE Charter, which deals with the possibility of suspension of membership or even exclusion of a state from the Council of Europe. Therefore, in our opinion, voting on the fate of such a country should reflect the will of the majority as much as possible, and not turn into an additional sanction tool for political struggle or “facilitated withdrawal” from the composition of the most wide-reaching organization in the European space, ”he said.
Russia has one requirement - the mechanism should not discriminate against the rights of the member states of the Council of Europe, and not make it easier for a group of strategic friends to appoint a guilty party. In the meantime, this looks like an attempt to legitimize the new punitive tools for our country. It looks even more cynical against the background of Russia's removal from participation in the Olympic Games and other major international competitions.
It is hardly possible to convict Russia of a desire for self-isolation - Moscow does not violate its obligations and does not have the habit of throwing its partners. At the same time, Russia was and remains a nuclear superpower, which has the right to defend its interests. In this sense, the frivolous and arrogant behavior of Western partners makes us think about many things - membership in various organizations, revising international treaties and ending burdensome, and often meaningless, communication.
I don’t know how they will solve the issue with WADA, but with PACE we already have a mechanism in place. I am sure that this is understood by the wise European bureaucrats and the sane European majority. We expect from our European comrades realism and political subjectivity at the January session of the assembly in Strasbourg.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.