"Fighting witches" in the European Parliamentary Assembly reached its highest point
On the eve of the May holidays, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was again excited. This time the head of the organization, the Spaniard Pedro Agramunt, became the center of her anger. A month before the events described, Agramunt, together with a delegation of Russian deputies, visited Syria. In addition to the Russians, headed by the leader of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Vladimir Vasilyev, the delegation also included PACE deputies from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Serbia and Italy.
Ukrainian renaissance in PACE
After Damascus, where Pedro Agramunt took part in meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Speaker of the Syrian People’s Council, Hadiah Abbas, the head of the PACE visited Moscow. Here he was received by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. This was not the first meeting of two politicians. Pedro Agramunt was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last January. When he took office, Agramunt pleased the deputies with the anti-Russian rhetoric familiar to this organization, but at the same time he cautiously spoke in favor of a dialogue with Russia.
Already in October, Pedro Agramunt, together with representatives of the presidential council of the European Assembly, visited Moscow. This trip laid the foundations for a detailed three-day visit to Russia of Agramunt, which happened this year in mid-January. Then, during the meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, Pedro Agramunt expressed the hope that the return of Russia to PACE will take place “before the end of his work as a leader”.
According to Agramunt, without the participation of Russia it is impossible to solve many international problems. The head of the PACE highlighted the fight against terrorism, human trafficking and the consequences of international conflicts among them. For this, it is necessary that the Russians return to the fold of the parliamentary assembly.
As we remember, three years ago, on the initiative of the Ukrainian deputies, the Russian delegation to the PACE was deprived of voting rights. This was the reaction of the European Assembly to the annexation of the Crimea to Russia and the help of the insurgent Donbass. In response, Russian parliamentarians left PACE. Contacts with her were frozen until the autumn visit to Moscow of the delegation of Agramunt.
Ukrainians with attention and tension followed the initiatives of the new PACE President. After the January visit to Moscow by Pedro Agramunt, the leader of the Ukrainian Radical Party, Oleg Lyashko, accused the head of the PACE of “doing everything to lift the sanctions against Russia.” Lyashko called the actions of Agramunt "appeasement of the aggressor." These assessments of the odious Ukrainian politician have remained outside the attention of European parliamentarians. They were already tired by the demarches of their Kiev colleagues.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians finally got their renaissance in PACE. The reason was the statement of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin that Pedro Agramunt's trip to Syria was the result of a Russian initiative. “A lot of work has been done,” noted Volodin in his commentary for the media on the trip of deputies to Damascus, “and the fact that the delegation includes the PACE chairman and the leaders of the PACE political factions is a great merit of our Foreign Affairs Committee, the committee chairman Leonid Slutsky.”
This quotation together with a photo, in which Leonid Slutsky and Pedro Agramunt pose next to Bashar Asad, the Ukrainians have distributed among PACE deputies. The soil for such newsletters is fertile here. The fact is that joining the Council of Europe in 1996, Russia assumed a number of obligations. In particular, ratify the European Conventions and Protocols thereto. In turn, PACE began to monitor Russia's fulfillment of commitments made when joining the Council of Europe.
In terms of Russophobia
There were several themes that were fallen in love with European parliamentarians. The main among them is the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Deputations began to go to Moscow, formed, for example, from representatives of the Baltic states, burdened with problems of non-citizens and stateless persons. They taught Russia democracy and modern European values. The visiting parliamentarians formed the official position of the PACE.
It went so far that the list of requirements was arbitrarily expanded. It began to include provisions that were not related to the obligations assumed by Russia in 1996. For example, in one of the reports they demanded “as soon as possible to return all property and cultural property contested by other Council of Europe member states”. In another, neglecting the domestic legislation of Russia, they condemned the deprivation of the parliamentary mandate of fair Russia’s Gennady Gudkov, who was convicted of combining parliamentary and entrepreneurial activities.
A distinctive feature of the European deputations was their ignoring of real facts. This happened in the evaluation of events in South Ossetia and in Ukraine. In one case, despite the war declared by the Tbilisi authorities and obvious ethnic cleansing, the drafters of the reports insisted on the territorial integrity of Georgia. In another, they ignored a clear coup d’état.
Favorite occupation of PACE deputies - to troll Russia - gave the first crack in 2012 year. By the autumn of that year, a regular overview report on monitoring the obligations of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe had matured. Speakers Swiss Andreas Gross and Romanian Georgi Frunda preoccupied with discrimination in Russia of sexual minorities, “disproportionate” punishment of participants of the scandalous group “Pussy Riot”, persecution of human rights activists, use of force against peaceful demonstrators and other “sins” set out in the 80-page text .
The recommendation of the rapporteurs - to continue PAS E monitoring in Russia - was supported by the leaders of the assembly. Learning about this, the then State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin refused to go to Strasbourg and his speech at the PACE plenary session. Naryshkin told reporters that he was going to talk about "major problems in the development of parliamentarism in Europe." However, I realized that his strategic proposals are unlikely "to be heard by a number of leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly and a number of leaders of Russophobic delegations."
It was five years ago. A direct and understandable signal came from Moscow to Strasbourg that Russia will no longer allow speaking with a mentor tone. In the Parliamentary Assembly, this did not reach everyone. Relapse happened very soon - during the Ukrainian events. He became the cause of the breakdown of working contacts and the freezing of relations between Russian deputies and PACE.
Time has shown: European and world problems cannot be solved without Russia. The new PACE leader understood this and restored the dialogue with his Russian colleagues. Admittedly, Pedro Agramunt had few allies. But opponents obsessed with Russophobia were enough. The main among them, of course, are the Ukrainians, for whom all the problems of the world and Europe came together at one point - in Moscow.
True, the power of the messengers of Kiev was not enough. At first, their indignation at the policy of the PACE President did not yield any result. This month, joint photos of Slutsky, Assad and Agramunt made my eyes plague the deputies of the assembly. Only by the end of April, when the adult Western leaders returned to the meme “Assad must leave!”, The cause, they say, was set in motion.
Pedro Agramunt understood this. At the opening of the spring session of the assembly, he acknowledged that his trip to Syria was a mistake and offered his apologies. However, it was too late. Hastily assembled the PACE bureau expressed Pedro Agramunt mistrust. The bureau banned the President of the Parliamentary Assembly from “making visits, making statements and conducting other activities on behalf of PACE”, and the organization’s website indicated that the president’s position was vacant.
The decision of the bureau led Ukrainian deputies to indescribable delight. They even began to dream that, before the election of a new president, the authority of the head of the assembly would now be imposed on the representative of the Ukrainian delegation, the PACE vice-president Georgy Logwinsky, albeit with a note “acting”.
There is a small obstacle along the way. Leonid Emets, member of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to PACE, on his Facebook page noted that the regulations of the assembly do not provide for the impeachment of the president. Only one way out - voluntary resignation. Pedro Agramunt did not write the statement of resignation. Moreover, he ignored the meeting of the PACE bureau. So there is a clear legal conflict.
Out of it Emets offers a simple - after the fact to change the PACE regulations. This step has little to do with parliamentary democracy. However, in Europe there are not only democratic traditions, but also the practice of fighting unwanted politicians and public figures, at various times called "witch hunts", "prohibitions on professions" and other bureaucratic delights that fit into the formula - the end justifies the means.
What will happen this time is not completely clear. Other hotheads urge PACE to force Pedro Agramunt to write a letter of resignation, and solve all the problems at once. Only in this case there will be one main problem - the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will enter its next round of Russophobia. Not everyone understood that the world only loses from this ...
Ukrainian renaissance in PACE
After Damascus, where Pedro Agramunt took part in meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Speaker of the Syrian People’s Council, Hadiah Abbas, the head of the PACE visited Moscow. Here he was received by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. This was not the first meeting of two politicians. Pedro Agramunt was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last January. When he took office, Agramunt pleased the deputies with the anti-Russian rhetoric familiar to this organization, but at the same time he cautiously spoke in favor of a dialogue with Russia.
Already in October, Pedro Agramunt, together with representatives of the presidential council of the European Assembly, visited Moscow. This trip laid the foundations for a detailed three-day visit to Russia of Agramunt, which happened this year in mid-January. Then, during the meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, Pedro Agramunt expressed the hope that the return of Russia to PACE will take place “before the end of his work as a leader”.
According to Agramunt, without the participation of Russia it is impossible to solve many international problems. The head of the PACE highlighted the fight against terrorism, human trafficking and the consequences of international conflicts among them. For this, it is necessary that the Russians return to the fold of the parliamentary assembly.
As we remember, three years ago, on the initiative of the Ukrainian deputies, the Russian delegation to the PACE was deprived of voting rights. This was the reaction of the European Assembly to the annexation of the Crimea to Russia and the help of the insurgent Donbass. In response, Russian parliamentarians left PACE. Contacts with her were frozen until the autumn visit to Moscow of the delegation of Agramunt.
Ukrainians with attention and tension followed the initiatives of the new PACE President. After the January visit to Moscow by Pedro Agramunt, the leader of the Ukrainian Radical Party, Oleg Lyashko, accused the head of the PACE of “doing everything to lift the sanctions against Russia.” Lyashko called the actions of Agramunt "appeasement of the aggressor." These assessments of the odious Ukrainian politician have remained outside the attention of European parliamentarians. They were already tired by the demarches of their Kiev colleagues.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians finally got their renaissance in PACE. The reason was the statement of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin that Pedro Agramunt's trip to Syria was the result of a Russian initiative. “A lot of work has been done,” noted Volodin in his commentary for the media on the trip of deputies to Damascus, “and the fact that the delegation includes the PACE chairman and the leaders of the PACE political factions is a great merit of our Foreign Affairs Committee, the committee chairman Leonid Slutsky.”
This quotation together with a photo, in which Leonid Slutsky and Pedro Agramunt pose next to Bashar Asad, the Ukrainians have distributed among PACE deputies. The soil for such newsletters is fertile here. The fact is that joining the Council of Europe in 1996, Russia assumed a number of obligations. In particular, ratify the European Conventions and Protocols thereto. In turn, PACE began to monitor Russia's fulfillment of commitments made when joining the Council of Europe.
In terms of Russophobia
There were several themes that were fallen in love with European parliamentarians. The main among them is the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Deputations began to go to Moscow, formed, for example, from representatives of the Baltic states, burdened with problems of non-citizens and stateless persons. They taught Russia democracy and modern European values. The visiting parliamentarians formed the official position of the PACE.
It went so far that the list of requirements was arbitrarily expanded. It began to include provisions that were not related to the obligations assumed by Russia in 1996. For example, in one of the reports they demanded “as soon as possible to return all property and cultural property contested by other Council of Europe member states”. In another, neglecting the domestic legislation of Russia, they condemned the deprivation of the parliamentary mandate of fair Russia’s Gennady Gudkov, who was convicted of combining parliamentary and entrepreneurial activities.
A distinctive feature of the European deputations was their ignoring of real facts. This happened in the evaluation of events in South Ossetia and in Ukraine. In one case, despite the war declared by the Tbilisi authorities and obvious ethnic cleansing, the drafters of the reports insisted on the territorial integrity of Georgia. In another, they ignored a clear coup d’état.
Favorite occupation of PACE deputies - to troll Russia - gave the first crack in 2012 year. By the autumn of that year, a regular overview report on monitoring the obligations of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe had matured. Speakers Swiss Andreas Gross and Romanian Georgi Frunda preoccupied with discrimination in Russia of sexual minorities, “disproportionate” punishment of participants of the scandalous group “Pussy Riot”, persecution of human rights activists, use of force against peaceful demonstrators and other “sins” set out in the 80-page text .
The recommendation of the rapporteurs - to continue PAS E monitoring in Russia - was supported by the leaders of the assembly. Learning about this, the then State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin refused to go to Strasbourg and his speech at the PACE plenary session. Naryshkin told reporters that he was going to talk about "major problems in the development of parliamentarism in Europe." However, I realized that his strategic proposals are unlikely "to be heard by a number of leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly and a number of leaders of Russophobic delegations."
It was five years ago. A direct and understandable signal came from Moscow to Strasbourg that Russia will no longer allow speaking with a mentor tone. In the Parliamentary Assembly, this did not reach everyone. Relapse happened very soon - during the Ukrainian events. He became the cause of the breakdown of working contacts and the freezing of relations between Russian deputies and PACE.
Time has shown: European and world problems cannot be solved without Russia. The new PACE leader understood this and restored the dialogue with his Russian colleagues. Admittedly, Pedro Agramunt had few allies. But opponents obsessed with Russophobia were enough. The main among them, of course, are the Ukrainians, for whom all the problems of the world and Europe came together at one point - in Moscow.
True, the power of the messengers of Kiev was not enough. At first, their indignation at the policy of the PACE President did not yield any result. This month, joint photos of Slutsky, Assad and Agramunt made my eyes plague the deputies of the assembly. Only by the end of April, when the adult Western leaders returned to the meme “Assad must leave!”, The cause, they say, was set in motion.
Pedro Agramunt understood this. At the opening of the spring session of the assembly, he acknowledged that his trip to Syria was a mistake and offered his apologies. However, it was too late. Hastily assembled the PACE bureau expressed Pedro Agramunt mistrust. The bureau banned the President of the Parliamentary Assembly from “making visits, making statements and conducting other activities on behalf of PACE”, and the organization’s website indicated that the president’s position was vacant.
The decision of the bureau led Ukrainian deputies to indescribable delight. They even began to dream that, before the election of a new president, the authority of the head of the assembly would now be imposed on the representative of the Ukrainian delegation, the PACE vice-president Georgy Logwinsky, albeit with a note “acting”.
There is a small obstacle along the way. Leonid Emets, member of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to PACE, on his Facebook page noted that the regulations of the assembly do not provide for the impeachment of the president. Only one way out - voluntary resignation. Pedro Agramunt did not write the statement of resignation. Moreover, he ignored the meeting of the PACE bureau. So there is a clear legal conflict.
Out of it Emets offers a simple - after the fact to change the PACE regulations. This step has little to do with parliamentary democracy. However, in Europe there are not only democratic traditions, but also the practice of fighting unwanted politicians and public figures, at various times called "witch hunts", "prohibitions on professions" and other bureaucratic delights that fit into the formula - the end justifies the means.
What will happen this time is not completely clear. Other hotheads urge PACE to force Pedro Agramunt to write a letter of resignation, and solve all the problems at once. Only in this case there will be one main problem - the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will enter its next round of Russophobia. Not everyone understood that the world only loses from this ...
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