Shock for Ukrainians: Russia returns to PACE

Ukrainian delegation leaves Council of Europe assembly in protest at readmission of Russian MPs.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a decision to change its sanctions mechanism, in which it invited Russia back to work in PACE without limiting its voting rights.

118 Assembly Members voted in favor, 62 were against, 10 abstained. The results — here.

The opinions were divided – even between representatives from the same countries – UK representative Roger Gale strongly criticized Russia’s actions, stressing the importance of PACE not giving in to Russia’s blackmailing, whilst other representatives focused on the rights of Russian citizens to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Russian citizens are the ones to file the most cases with ECtHR out of all 47 member states.

Other delegates stressed the importance of Russia’s contributions which make a substantial amount of PACE’s budget. At present, Russia owes 66 million euros to the Council of Europe. The country halted payments to the organization in 2017 and extended the pay freeze in January 2019.

After the amendments, the Assembly can not limit the right to vote, right to speak, right to participate and vote in the committees despite the violations committed by the state or its representatives to the organization.

At the same time, the organization has a right to refuse to confirm the mandate of the delegation of a certain state.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine says that the return of the Russian Federation to PACE will weaken the organization and undermine its rules.

«Lifting Russia’s ban in PACE is obviously not the right policy silver bullet that could Stop Russian Aggression. Conversely, it would weaken this reputable organization, subverting the fairness and transparency of rules in Save Council Europe,» — MFA spokesperson Kateryna Zelenko said on Twitter on June 24.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, said he was disappointed by the decision.

«I am disappointed with the PACE’s decision to approve without limitation the rights of the delegation of the Russian Federation. Last week I personally discussed this issue with the French President and the Federal Chancellor of Germany. I tried to convince Mr. Macron and Mrs. Merkel that the return of the Russian delegation to the PACE is possible only after Russia will meet the Assembly’s fundamental requirements. It is a pity that our European partners did not hear us and acted in a different way,» Zelensky wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

He thanked the delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the PACE and national delegations friendly to Ukraine for supporting the Ukrainian position on this issue.

Also, the President of Ukraine said that the main argument in favor of the return of the Russian delegation was the need to protect human rights and the rights of citizens as the highest democratic values. «I hope that in the issue of protecting democratic values no one had any thoughts about material values,» Zelensky wrote.

The Netherlands Plane Crash Foundation, on behalf of a large group of relatives of the Boeing MN17 plane crash victims, opposed the return of the Russian Federation voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), NOS reports.

The foundation sent the relevant letter to the PACE. It notes that Russia does not cooperate with the investigation regarding the MN17 catastrophe, as well as spreads false information about downing of the aircraft.

“Russia cannot simply get the right to vote in the Council of Europe. This is possible only under the strong guarantees that Russia will cooperate with the investigation of the MN17 catastrophe,” the foundation said.

The Russian delegation’s voting rights were suspended in 2014, after the assembly adopted a resolution that called Russia’s annexation of Crimea a “grave violation of international law”. Russia responded by boycotting the assembly, and since 2017, has suspended its annual £28m payments to the council.