Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the recent comments made by Daniel Holtgen, a spokesman for the Council of Europe's chief, about the recent phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the council's secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland, were not entirely accurate.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2018) Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the recent comments made by Daniel Holtgen, a spokesman for the Council of Europe's chief, about the recent phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the council's secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland, were not entirely accurate.
Last week, Holtgen told Sputnik that Lavrov had allegedly assured Jagland that Russia wanted to stay in the organization and would only leave if other member states decided to expel it.
"We have taken note of the comment made by the Council of Europe's press secretary on November 1 after the phone conversation between the Russian foreign minister and the secretary general of the Council of Europe, and we believe that it [the comment] is not fully accurate," Zakharova said at a press briefing.
The senior diplomat pointed out that Russia was interested in continuing constructive cooperation within the Council of Europe, which was facing a deep institutional crisis caused by the organization's decision to discriminate against the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
"Along with representatives of the [PACE] member states, which seek constructive [cooperation], we are making specific efforts in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in order to resolve the current situation," Zakharova said.
The spokeswoman expressed hope that the European countries were sharing the principle of equality of all member states of the main bodies of the Council of Europe.
Relations between Russia and the Council of Europe, particularly its parliamentary arm, worsened after PACE deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote in the wake of Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014, which was not recognized by Western states.
Since 2016, the Russian delegation in PACE has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions in protest of the discrimination. Tensions escalated further when Moscow announced that it had canceled part of its annual payment to the Council of Europe for 2017, demanding that the Russian delegation's rights be restored.
