Volodin due to meet with PACE president on Jan 12
MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - A delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) led by PACE President Pedro Agramunt will arrive in Moscow this week, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
"The parliament [PACE] lives by archaic laws. This is what we will be discussing," Volodin told reporters on Tuesday.
The speaker said he would meet with Agramunt on January 12.
According to a report posted on the State Duma's website, the delegation is due to pay the visit on January 11-13.
Volodin said he had no 'high expectations' for a meeting with Agramunt.
"It's good if we attain any clarity through communication with Mr. Agramunt but it is probably wrong to hope that every problem can be resolved at once; that would be too much to expect from this meeting," he said.
"Any meeting is dialogue, and any dialogue is good because it gives an opportunity to discuss things. Certainly, we would like to clear the air," the State Duma speaker said.
PACE consists of factions comprising parliamentarians from various countries and has an established decision-making system, he said.
The Assembly deems these regulations to be acceptable, yet Russia feels it is abnormal to deprive a delegation of a fundamental right, the vote, Volodin said.
"We think that this is not normal, that the parliament is a platform for debate, for discussion of issues and for declaration of various points of view, that it is inadmissible to deprive any national delegation [of the vote], that these are fundamental democratic rules, and that this is what the foundation of parliamentarianism is about," he said.
In the speaker's words, it is impossible to imagine a whole political faction being deprived of the vote at the State Duma. There will be no sense for this faction to stay in parliament any longer, he said.
"Whenever such decisions are made at the Council of Europe, it is sad that such things are done by those who assume the right to teach others," he said.
Russia favors dialogue and participation in PACE activity, Volodin said.
"Still, it is pointless to participate in the Parliamentary Assembly, which deprives you of the vote. Yes, one may become a minority, one may fail to be convincing and a proposed solution may not gain support, but there should be some discussion, debate and a possibility to declare and to defend one's opinion, but if one is deprived of the vote... Listen, the European Parliament lives by archaic laws it has invented for itself; this is not normal, and we will be discussing it," Volodin said.
He told the press earlier that the Russian delegation was not going to attend the PACE session in late January but would resume its full-scale engagement in the Assembly's activity after it fully regained powers, including the vote.
Speaking of the personal attitude of Agramunt, he definitely stands for constructive work with the Russian delegation and believes that "all 47 members of the Council of Europe would partake in the PACE activity," Volodin said.
The Russian delegation was stripped of principal rights - the vote and membership in Assembly governing bodies and observation missions - in 2014 because of the Crimea and Ukraine situation. Russian parliamentarians refused to attend Assembly sessions in protest.
