The initiative in the situation with Russia's possible refusal to pay fees to the Council of Europe (CoE) and its Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) remains on the side of the latter, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Friday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2018) The initiative in the situation with Russia's possible refusal to pay fees to the Council of Europe (CoE) and its Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) remains on the side of the latter, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Friday.
On Wednesday, CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said that the organization might expel Russia if Moscow would not resume payments to its budget. On Thursday, he told the PACE that, as far as he knew, Russia might not participate in the January 2019 CoE meeting and might not resume payments.
"The ball was and is in the court of the Council of Europe and the PACE. Our position is absolutely clear," Grushko told reporters.
The assembly is not taking steps that could overcome the systemic crisis in PACE, the deputy minister noted.
"The situation is still not changing," he added.
The relations between PACE and the Russian lawmakers have been tense since 2014, when Russia was deprived of its voting rights in PACE governing bodies over the different stances on the Ukrainian conflict and the reunification of Crimea with Russia.
Since 2016, the Russian delegation at PACE has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions in protest over discrimination within the organization.
In June 2017, Moscow froze part of its CoE contribution meant for Russia's PACE membership for 2018, until the Russian delegation's rights in the organization are completely restored. At the same time, the Russian side proposed to include provisions in the PACE's regulations that no one has the right to deprive any national delegation of rights.
On Tuesday, Russian State Duma international affairs committee chairman Leonid Slutsky said Russia was highly unlikely to resume its work in the PACE the next year in the wake of the postponement of the recent discussion about the amendments to PACE rules on credentials and rights of national delegations.
Russian parliament's upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday that Russia would make its final decision on CoE participation by January.
