Russian delegation to return to PACE only on condition of its reinstatement, Duma speaker tells CoE secretary general
MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - The Russian delegation will not resume its work in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) unless it gets all of its rights back, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said at a meeting with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland on Tuesday.
"A return of the Russian delegation is only possible if discriminatory measures are lifted," he said in his first introductory meeting with Jagland in Moscow.
It is completely obvious that the stalemate that the PACE representation, which made this discriminatory decision, has driven itself into, "is a blow primarily to the prestige of the Council of Europe," the speaker said.
Volodin then suggested providing assistance for the PACE leadership's current course towards normalization with the Russian parliamentary delegation.
Now that its participation in PACE is suspended, the Russian parliament "has not taken, and has no intention of taking, any steps towards self-isolation," Volodin said.
"We don't consider Russia's return to PACE a goal in itself," he said. This is primarily about creating conditions that would prevent a repeat of such crises in respect to not only Russia but any other parliamentary delegation, he said.
Volodin told Jagland that he would like to hear his opinion on PACE reform, primarily, on whether this reform should involve - as one of its core elements - an elimination of the possibility of discriminating against any of the national delegations, i.e. partial revocation of its powers and expulsion from the PACE.
He was also interested in knowing Jagland's opinion on the expediency of abandoning the practice of country monitoring (i.e. when the Assembly decides and monitors compliance by a particular country with the specific obligations resulting of its CoE membership). Russia wants country monitoring to be replaced with thematic monitoring.
Volodin also pointed out yet another element of the PACE reform proposed by Russia: to rule out the possibility of PACE documents being approved by a minority of its members.
"We hope that our meeting today and conversation will help us find a compromise on this issue, given that we have confirmed, on behalf of the State Duma, to Mr. [Pedro] Agramunt [PACE chief] our readiness to confirm matters pertaining to the structuring of our subsequent relations with the Assembly," Volodin said.
Hopefully, "today's contacts will help in the search for mutually acceptable solutions [to the problems] that are no fault of Russia, nor of its parliamentary delegation," he said.
In 2014 the PACE stripped the Russian delegation of its core rights - voting and participating in the work of PACE's governing structures and monitoring missions - over the situation around Ukraine and Crimea. In sign of protest the Russian delegation refused to attend PACE assemblies and has not gone to Strasbourg for two years now.