Time to stop CoE monitoring of Russia - Duma Speaker
MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said he would demand an end to the Council of Europe's (CoE) monitoring mission in Russia at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's autumn session.
"I think Russia has fulfilled its main obligations assumed in 1996, when it applied for membership, therefore the monitoring mission in its current form should be stopped and work continued in the form of standard post-monitoring dialogue," Naryshkin told Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland in the State Duma on Tuesday.
He said he would speak about this issue in PACE in the autumn, where he has been invited.
Naryshkin also spoke about the Council of Europe's reform and Jagland's proposals.
"We know that a discussion is underway of the reform you have proposed. The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers is divided on monitoring procedures. We, too, think that this carries a certain risk and that some members tend to politicize the monitoring issue," Naryshkin said.
In Russia's opinion, the Council of Europe should work more effectively and play the central role in the entire system of European institutions, Naryshkin said.
