OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hopes for a speedy resolution of the crisis in the Council of Europe (CE). “Russia's cooperation with the Council of Europe is focused on an active dialogue with civil society”, he said on Monday at a meeting with leaders of Russian regional non-profit organizations. requires equal rights for the delegations of all countries of the Council of Europe".

According to Lavrov, a good opportunity to make efforts in this direction through one of the structures of the Council of Europe is the participation in the conference of international non-governmental organizations. “In recent years, the Russian civil society was, unfortunately, represented at these events not enough”, the minister noted. “I think that our presence there needs to be expanded, including at the expense of NPOs from Russian regions that specialize in human rights issues, including and the interests of our compatriots".

The delegation of the Russian Federation to PACE in April 2014 was deprived of the right to vote because of the events in Ukraine and the reunification of the Crimea with Russia. Russia, in response, refused to pay annual contributions to the budget of the Council of Europe and to participate in the work of the assembly. As a result, the question arose whether Russia could remain in the Council of Europe under such conditions.

In April of this year, the European deputies adopted a resolution, which, inter alia, refers to the need to preserve Russia in the Council of Europe and calls upon Moscow to appoint a delegation to the PACE. The ministerial meeting of the Council of Europe, held on May 16-17 in Helsinki, adopted a statement stating that all member states should "be allowed to participate on an equal basis to the work of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly". The Foreign Ministers also stated that they would welcome the participation of the delegations of all the member states in the PACE session on June 26-28.