Russia will not attend the upcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in spite of the appeal of the PACE president to State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin.
"PACE President Anne Brasseur asked State Duma Speaker Naryshkin in a recent telephone conversation to send the Russian delegation, even with limited powers, [to the session] for continuing the dialogue with Russia. We do not think it will be expedient to continue the seeming dialogue under these circumstances because the dialogue is possible only between equal partners,"
State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said at a press conference at Interfax on Wednesday, according to Interfax.
"The dialogue is impossible if one of the partners is deprived of rights," he said.
The Assembly will hold the next session on June 23-27, Pushkov said.
"The Russian side has repeatedly defined its position: we will take no part in the activity of the Parliamentary Assembly until all powers of the Russian delegation are restored fully," he noted.
The Russian delegation has been deprived of three rights, he said.
"We cannot vote, we cannot contribute to the activity of PACE ruling bodies and our representatives cannot be members of PACE monitoring missions," Pushkov said.
"We think we cannot participate in the activity of this organization as long as we have this discriminated status," the State Duma committee chairman said.
Russia's powers in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) could be reaffirmed in January 2015 and if this does not happen, Russia will not continue its activities in the PACE, State Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov said.
"In case the PACE maintains the discriminating status of Russia until the end of the year - this is how it should be under the resolutions passed - I do not see a possibility of Russia participating the PACE session in October. The situation might change in January 2015 because then powers of all national delegations are reaffirmed," Pushkov said at a news conference in the central office of Interfax on Wednesday.
It can not be ruled out that powers of the Russian delegation will be reaffirmed and, in this case, it will resume comprehensive activities, Pushkov said.
"It is also probable that someone will raise the issue to extending these sanctions. If these sanctions are extended, I think Russia will to see a possibility to participate in the activities of this organization," Pushkov said.
Speaking about the Kiev’s decision to appoint new Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, Pushkov said that it was "a correct decision".
"I believe this is a correct decision but it is wrong that Kiev has not made public apologies for the comments made by [Ukrainian Foreign Minister] Deshchytsia," Pushkov said.
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