Petr Tolstoy
Petr Olegovich
reminded that since 2014 the rights of the Russian delegation to PACE have been subjected to serious discrimination.
In particular, Russian representatives have been deprived of the right to vote and participate in the monitoring activities and statutory bodies of the Assembly.
In response to these actions, since 2016 Russia has suspended its work in this
organization. This year Russia decided not to pay contribution to the PACE. On Thursday, September 20, a draft report of the PACE Committee was published,
proposing to slightly complicate the procedures for reviewing the powers of the national delegations.
In his opinion, in its present form the report is nothing more than a ”banal formal reply“.
”As you know, last week the commission on the regulations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe presented a draft report that was supposed to resolve the conflicts between the legislative and executive branches of power in the Council of Europe, to harmonize the work of this organization. The oldest parliamentary organization of old Europe was supposed to give an answer to the question whether it is possible to deprive the national delegations of rights in it, and depending on this answer the Russian delegation will or will not return to the PACE”, he stated. “At the end, after a long and painstaking work of the Nicoletti commission, attempts to find compromise between different political groups and delegations, we received a banal reply: instead of excluding any possibility of discrimination of any national delegation, the report suggests only cosmetic changes in the regulations and slightly complicates the process of making such decisions“.
”Of course, the discussion of this report is still ahead at the next meeting of the Assembly at the beginning of October (the report will be considered on October 9),“ said Petr Tolstoy.
”But in the form in which they are presented in the document today, they do not give any guarantee for the restoration of the rights of the Russian delegation. We take it for granted that nothing will change,“ the parliamentarian said.
The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma said that he ”constantly hears the opinion of the Russian citizens, our voters who sincerely do not understand why Russia voluntarily and publicly becomes victim of insolent and deceitful attacks on international platforms, and even pays money for this“. The parliamentarian noted that he shared the opinion of people, and he does not have ”that optimism that some of our colleagues have about the embedding of Russia in this beautiful western world of its today's false values“.
According to Petr Tolstoy, Russia's greatest concern is not the very presence or the right to vote at the Parliamentary Assembly, but the consequences of the absence of the delegation there. ”In particular, the fact that Russia does not participate in the process of electing a plenipotentiary for human rights, ECHR judges, other governing bodies makes these structures and their decisions illegitimate in respect to Russia,“ he said.
Petr Tolstoy stressed that international organizations were originally created to protect peace and harmony on Earth, for a dialogue between representatives of different countries, the opportunity to express their position openly on different issues. However lately they have become only a tool in someone else's game, believes the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma.
”And in this situation, is it true that somebody believes that suddenly Russia will get the right to vote in the PACE?“ the member of the State Duma asked.
”I share the opinion of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Russia wants to remain in the Council of Europe, which we once joined, whose charter states that every country has equal rights in all its structures,“ he concluded. According to Petr Tolstoy, ”to conduct a dialogue in today's situation is the same as playing cards with a cheat“.
