PACE confirms full restoration of Russian voting rights - Ukraine sulks, walks out

RT
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:13 UTC

© Reuters / Vincent Kessler

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a resolution confirming full restoration of all rights and voting powers of the Russian delegation, prompting the Ukrainian delegation to withdraw in protest.

Moscow's voting rights had been stripped in 2014, after Crimea voted in a referendum to rejoin Russia, but PACE ruled on Monday that all member states have the "rights to vote, to speak and to be represented in the Assembly and its bodies shall not be suspended or withdrawn in the context of a challenge to or reconsideration of credentials."

Responding to the return of Russia as a fully-fledged member of PACE, the Ukrainian delegation announced it would leave the body in protest, with one member even declaring "all Russians are bastards" after the decision.

Following a challenge on Tuesday, PACE voted by 116 votes to 62 (with 15 abstentions) to ratify the credentials of the Russian delegation.

Moscow said on Monday that Russia's return to PACE was a "very positive" development and "victory of common sense."

Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Georgia have reportedly decided to follow Ukraine out of the European body in opposition to Russia's return.

Comment: Russia is pleased to rejoin PACE, but has a few conditions of its own:

Russia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will not comply with PACE resolutions that have been adopted during the years of its absence, the head of the delegation and the deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of Parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy, said on Tuesday.

"We are not going to comply with a single resolution that has been adopted in absence of the Russian Federation", Tolstoy told reporters.

In April 2014, Russia was stripped of its voting rights in the organisation in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis and aftermath of the Crimea referendum.

Since 2016, the Russian delegation has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions, in protest of the discrimination it faces within PACE.

Moscow has also frozen its contributions to the Council of Europe, stating that payments would be withheld until the Russian delegation's rights are fully restored.

PACE supported sanctions against Moscow, but later urged Russia to pay the fees and come back to the assembly. However, Russia has demanded guarantees that it will be granted the right to vote before it returns, so the delegation won't be stripped of its rights again.

• Russia not coming back to Council of Europe as long as it continues to discriminate based on "political preferences"
• PACE votes for Russia's immediate return after three years under sanctioned absence