The Russian upper house speaker has described the recent move to
suspend membership fees to the Council of Europe as "absolutely right,”
but noted that relations with the body could be resumed if it ends
"discrimination” against national delegations.
"[The
suspension of payment] was a signal to the Council of Europe as a
whole, not only to PACE [the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary
Assembly], a signal that the situation in this organization continues to
degrade,” Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko was quoted as saying by TASS.
"Representatives of national delegations are facing
repression, there is no free place for discussions and the Russophobic
lobby attempts to rule PACE, the attempts to relieve its chairman Mr
Pedro Agramunt from his duties are proving this fact,” the senator added.
The
comments came soon after the Friday statement of the Russian Foreign
Ministry, which announced that Moscow had officially informed the
Council of Europe secretary general that it will suspend €11 million
(US$12.5 million) of its €33 million 2017 membership fee until the
rights of the Russian delegation in PACE are fully restored.
Matviyenko
emphasized that the ongoing spat between Russia and PACE was not about
one particular conflict or incident, but over the general rules of
granting or restraining the rights of national delegations.
"No
one has the right to restrict the powers of any national delegation,
because its representatives are elected by the citizens of their country
and then delegated to PACE in order to represent their nation.”
The
Russian official also noted that the current situation in PACE
questioned the legitimacy of the organization’s ruling bodies because
one of the assembly’s member-states was not voting for them, and said
that the CE’s Committee of Ministers was aware of the situation and also
considered it worrying.
However, Matviyenko assured reporters that Russia could
take new decisions to suspend its CE fees if PACE does not change its
regulations in a way that would exclude the possibility of further
discrimination of national delegations.
"On what grounds
should we pay them? Simply that we could every day watch this
Russophobic hysteria sponsored by our own funds? No, this is wrong, this
is not correct,” she stated.
PACE stripped the Russian
delegation of its voting rights and banned it from participating in the
group’s ruling bodies or monitoring missions in mid-2014, quoting
Russia’s role in the acute political crisis in Ukraine as the main
reason behind the sanctions. The restrictions were prolonged in 2015 and
2016.
In response, the Russian delegation ceased any
participation in PACE sessions, with lawmakers considering it impossible
to resume discussions while the sanctions were in force. Russia also
passed a parliamentary resolution stating that nations which have
repeatedly violated international law and caused thousands of casualties
have no moral right to judge Russia or impose sanctions on it.
