OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian Federation must remain a member of the Council of Europe, despite all differences. This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron during congratulations by the Norwegian Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, informs "24TV". “The Council of Europe needs Russia, and the Russians need the Council of Europe. This means that its rights as a member state must also be respected,” added Thorbjorn Jagland. 

Recall that the Council of Europe for several years was involved in a conflict with the Russian side. It was assumed that this situation could be solved by the newly elected Youngland. It should be added that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe suspended the right to vote to Russian parliamentarians because of the annexation of the Crimea in 2014. In turn, Russia froze its budget of 33 million euros of the Council since 2017. Moreover, Moscow was threatened that they would leave an international organization if its rights were not fully restored.

Earlier, the head of the international committee of the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, assessed the possibility of Russia’s return to the Council of Europe. According to him, all the arguments on this score are premature and are hypothetical in nature until the organization’s regulations are amended. They will not go over to the real plane of reasoning until the very possibility of unilateral discrimination of national parliamentary delegations for political reasons is eliminated from the rules of procedure of the Council of Europe, ”Kosachev said. He stressed that, for the time being, an aggressively anti-Russian minority in the assembly is blocking all attempts to do so. However, the senator clarified that earlier the ministry didn't exclude the possibility of paying a contribution to the Council of Europe in full if the Council of Europe restores the powers of the Russian delegations to the assembly.