PACE rapporteurs on Ukraine to visit Kyiv by end of Dec - Pushkov
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will send its rapporteurs on Ukraine to Kyiv by the end on December so that they can analyze the current situation and report their conclusions to PACE authorities, Head of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexei Pushkov said.
"It has been decided to send to Kyiv PACE rapporteurs on Ukraine, who should analyze the current events and to report to PACE leadership on how they see the situation. After this the decision - on whether the PACE should send members of its leadership to Kyiv in order to hold talks - will be made in early January," Pushkov told Interfax on the telephone on Monday.
The State Duma committee head and the head of the Russian delegation in PACE, Pushkov, is currently in Paris, where the PACE bureau meeting is held.
The issue of whether the delegation of the PACE leaders should be sent to Kyiv was actively discussed at the meeting on Monday, Pushkov said.
The stance that PACE should be involved in protecting human rights and preventing a crisis in the human rights sector and should not participate in the domestic political fight of this or that country, prevailed.
"Sending the PACE leadership delegation to Kyiv now amid the current context could be taken by many as an attempt to influence the outcome of the political fight in Ukraine and this is why it has been decided almost unanimously to return to considering the issue in early January," Pushkov said.
Members of the PACE bureau have decided that sending the PACE leadership delegation now could give "a wrong signal to the parties who are fighting and could be taken as an attempt to participate in the political fight in Ukraine, which would be wrong now," Pushkov said.
Ukraine is monitored by the Council of Europe and rapporteurs have the right to go there at any moment in order to analyze the current situation, Pushkov said.
"I would say that this is routine monitoring. And sending members of PACE leadership to Ukraine would be some extreme action, which would mean that PACE is especially concerned about the human rights situation in Ukraine. And as of today, enough grounds for such concern do not exist," he said.
It is expected that rapporteurs will go to Kyiv by the end of December and the issue of whether the PACE leadership delegation should be sent to Ukraine or not will be discussed on January 9, Pushkov said.