Delegation of the Russian Federation will start working in PACE only after confirmation of credentials

“The debates were held for many hours, and, despite the fact that the orthodox part of PACE did everything to block the resolution, it was adopted, a reasonable majority upheld the position,” said Viacheslav Volodin Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast) . He said that as soon as the resolution was adopted, the Russian Federation applied for participation.

“The Russian delegation is invited to work. Fundamental rights such as the right to participate, the right to discuss and the right to vote are protected. Then comes the next stage of confirmation of credentials,“ said the Chairman of the State Duma. He noted that only when a decision on the confirmation of credentials is made “it will be possible to say that we have returned to full-fledged work, and with the rights of the Russian delegation been protected, which we repeatedly insisted on.”

“It should be recognized that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supported this decision, appealed to PACE, and today, as you know, PACE has taken the first steps in this direction,” said Viacheslav Volodin.

He stressed that the fundamental rights of delegations today are inviolate, but some issues such as the right to participate in monitoring groups or in PACE structures remain unresolved.

At the same time, the Chairman of the State Duma suggested that during the confirmation of the delegation’s credentials “those destructive forces that are in the minority but are present in PACE” will try to make the credentials of the Russian delegation incomprehensive.

“But it is absolutely clear that PACE has taken serious steps to democratize the parliamentary structure, to protect the fundamental rights of national delegations, and this is the right decision. And what the next steps to complete this work so that the parliamentary structure is guided by the principles of parliamentarism will be, time will show,” concluded Viacheslav Volodin.