Russia Wants To Stay In Council Of Europe With Equal Rights For All - Lavrov

BANJA LUKA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) Russia will stay in a Council of Europe that does not discriminate against its members, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

"Russia wants to be part of the Council of Europe that we once joined," he told reporters in the Bosnian Serb city of Banja Luka.

Lavrov explained that Russia wanted the charter of the 47-nation organization to enshrine equal rights for all national delegations "so that no member can be discriminated against it any of its bodies."

This comes as the Committee on Rules of Procedure at the Council's Parliamentary Assembly is working on changes to the PACE rulebook to make it harder to challenge credentials of national delegations and their voting rights.

Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, said earlier Russia was considering exiting the Council of Europe after its delegation refused in 2016 to renew credentials at PACE after the organization suspended its voting rights in governing bodies.