OREANDA-NEWS. The monitoring of the fulfillment of its obligations imposed on Russia by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is discriminatory. This was stated by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin in his article in the Russian mass media on the results of the II International Forum "Development of Parliamentarism".

As the politician recalled, during the last months, “common sense” dominated in the organization, and a resolution was adopted on guaranteeing the rights of national delegations to vote and to fully participate in the meetings, which the Russian side insisted on over the past few years. 

“However, while welcoming this decision, we nevertheless understand that the politicization of PACE is far from over”, he stated. “So, the PACE monitoring imposed on Russia is also essentially discriminatory”, the head of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament stressed. “They try to present him as a reservation, to create the illusion of inferiority of the return of powers of the Russian delegation”. According to Volodin, "this kind of petty tricks don't do credit to their initiators and by no means help PACE, as a European institution, to finally overcome its own deep crisis".

The countries participating in the last meeting of the organization adopted a resolution according to which the Russian delegation returned all the rights of a member of the assembly. All proposed sanctions amendments to the document were rejected. As the head of the organization “Left European Left in PACE” told reporters, the representative of the Netherlands, Tini Cox, Russia remains in the assembly as a full member, without any restrictions”. The delegation of Ukraine, as well as the Baltic countries, Georgia and a number of other delegates, categorically opposed the return of Russia to the organization.