Parliamentarian hopes PACE will reject idea of Russia monitoring transfer
MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - A possible decision of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) to put the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in charge of monitoring Russia is unacceptable, Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia's PACE delegation and State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said.
"We have learned about the existence of a decision to transfer the monitoring procedure in relation to Russia to the level of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe," he said at a press briefing on Thursday.
So far, such a decision has not been adopted, but it will be discussed by the PACE Bureau on October 1, he said.
"We view this initiative as a certain attempt to discredit Russia in front of the international community," Pushkov said.
If the assembly approves this proposal, it will mean that it follows double standards toward Council of Europe member states subject to the monitoring procedure, the Russian parliamentarian said.
"So far, such a decision has not been adopted in relation to any country subject to monitoring," he said.
"We can guess who is standing behind this proposal. It is the Russophobic delegations of some PACE member countries which themselves have 300,000 non-citizens each, which put up monuments to the Nazis, and their delegations are very active and have chosen Russia for their attacks in order to divert the assembly's attention from their own serious problems," Pushkov said.
The Russian parliamentarian said he hoped that neither PACE nor its Bureau would approve this initiative.
"Otherwise, no one will win. I would like to stress that the Council of Europe leadership has plenty of members who disapprove of such a possible decision, which would seriously aggravate relations with Russia," he said.
