Russian delegation to return to PACE only when discrimination stops - Matviyenko
MOSCOW. Nov 5 (Interfax) - Russia will only attend proceedings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) when its rights are fully reinstated, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has said.
"The parliamentary assembly is offering us to return. We do not mind, we are not closing doors. But we say that we will return when PACE fully stops the discrimination against the Russian delegation and reinstates our rights in full. We will not agree to any half-measures. The PACE has itself created the stalemate and must find a way out of it," Matviyenko said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
PACE made a gross error by putting Russia into a position where it was forced to quit this platform, she said.
"In fact, with our departure, the atmosphere in PACE has, I would say, faded. Russia's full participation in this organization made its activity much more substantive and oriented towards concrete vital issues," Matviyenko said.
Now that Russia is not in PACE, the discussion of many pressing issues "is devalued both politically and practically," she said.