The Russian delegation will leave the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) if it restricts its authority. This was stated by the head of the delegation, vice speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy.

“I hope that the sane majority will not make such decisions. But if they accept, we will leave, ”RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

So Tolstoy commented on the initiative of several PACE deputies to challenge the credentials of the Russian delegation.

“On behalf of my colleagues, I would like to call into question the credentials of the Russian delegation for good reason,” said the representative of Lithuania Emanuelis Zingeris.

In total, at least 30 parliamentarians from five countries supported this proposal. This is stated on the PACE website. According to the regulations of the assembly, this is enough to challenge the authority.

Within a day, the monitoring committee will have to prepare a report and a draft resolution restricting the rights of Russian delegates. Moreover, representatives of the Russian Federation will not be allowed to vote.

Leonid Slutsky, member of the Russian delegation, head of the State Duma’s committee on international affairs, believes that most PACE deputies will take the side of the Russian Federation.

“The vast majority of delegates want to support us. In Strasbourg, it is becoming more and more interesting, and the work of the Russian delegation is more and more effective. It’s still not easy for us, but we will work, ”RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

  • Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Petr Tolstoy at a meeting of the PACE winter session
  • RIA News
  • © Dominic Buten

“You need to rely on common sense”

In the event that Russia will be forced to resign from PACE, it will no longer return to participate in meetings, warned the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, Vladimir Dzhabarov.

“If Russia leaves PACE again, it will no longer return there. And then PACE, to put it mildly, will cease to exist in its current form. Because without Russia, PACE as an international platform becomes completely uninteresting. Therefore, we must rely on the common sense of the assembly participants that they will not follow the Lithuanians who are known for their hard Russophobia, ”he said in an interview with RT.

Russia returned to work at PACE in June 2019. This became possible after changing the organization’s rules - Moscow demanded that the right to vote, speak and be represented in the assembly and its bodies were undeniable.

In 2014, the Russian delegation was deprived of these powers. This decision was made in connection with the events in Ukraine and the reunification of the Crimea and the Russian Federation. Since the credentials were not returned, in 2016 Russia stopped participating in meetings and reduced contributions to the organization’s budget.

However, some countries have sharply criticized the return of Russian parliamentarians. So, in early October, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Georgia created an informal Baltic Plus bloc, whose task was to oppose Russia in PACE.

“The task is to continue the policy of non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea, the condemnation of the Russian occupation of Crimea, parts of Eastern Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova,” wrote the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Elizaveta Yasko, on her Facebook.

Thus, we can say that the organization is trying to return to the state that was before June last year, Jabarov stated.

“They are trying to return what PACE left, again to challenge the credentials of the Russian delegation. They want to again deprive her of the right to vote and the right to make decisions, ”he stressed.

According to Professor RUDN University, political scientist Yuri Pochta, depriving the Russian delegation of authority would harm PACE itself.

“The role of Russia in international relations is noticeably growing. Serious international problems cannot be resolved without Russia. Russia is a side that takes a fairly restrained position, a non-aggressive, non-conductive imperialist policy. Russia's place is very important, therefore such attempts by politicians are absurd and reckless, ”he said in an interview with RT.

The expert is convinced that this initiative “destroys the very idea of ​​the existence of both the Council of Europe and PACE as places where representatives of the legislative assemblies of European states meet that deal with the problems of democracy and the protection of human rights."