Alexey Pushkov: The countries that bombed Belgrade and Libya have no right to make decisions on the Russian delegation
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Alexei Pushkov, made a statement on the situation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Today, PACE deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote until the end of the year and excluded it from all the governing bodies in connection with the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
The amendment, in particular, states: "... to express its condemnation and disapproval of the actions of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, the Assembly decides to suspend the following rights of the delegation of the Russian Federation until the end of the 2014 session: right to vote; right to be represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the Presidential Committee , The Standing Committee; the right to participate in election observation missions. "
92 people voted for this amendment, 74 was against and 19 abstained, Interfax reports.
The Russian delegation leaves the April session of the PACE ahead of schedule in protest against the substantial limitation of its powers in the Assembly and reserves the right to consider the question of further participation in the organization’s activities, said Alexey Pushkov, the head of the delegation.
“We will not take part in the further work of the session. Now we are leaving this session in protest and reserve the right to consider the question of Russia's further participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, ”Pushkov said at a briefing on Thursday.
The head of the Russian delegation stressed that the ban on voting and participating in the work of the governing bodies of PACE is a gross violation of the rights of the delegation of the Russian Federation.
Alexey Pushkov also stated that the Assembly had betrayed its own principles: human rights and the rule of law.
Russia will take the decision to stay in PACE in the next two to three weeks, the head of the Russian delegation told reporters.
PACE raised the question of revoking the delegation of the Russian Federation, several times considering similar amendments, including initiated by the representative of the United Kingdom, Robert Walter. However, the voices of those who opposed the revocation of the authority of the delegation of the Russian Federation more than double the number of supporters of this idea. In particular, two such votes were indicative: 50 “for”, 123 “against” and 55 “for”, 117 “against”, Interfax reports.
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