The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is reportedly set to lift remaining sanctions from the Russian Federation after it became known that PACE committees had considered the question of the powers of Russia's delegation and recommended they should be reinstated with simultaneous cancellation of the remaining restrictions left after the Assembly passed a respective resolution.
In particular, the PACE Monitoring Committee, which probed into violations of Council of Europe principles by Russia and its delegation, did not find any reason to suggest that the Assembly could impose restrictions on the Russians, the Ukrainian-registered European Pravda news outlet reported, referring to the committee's decision.
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The PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure, which was to consider the presence of the Russian delegates who voted for the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and who were elected in unlawful local elections on the Russia-occupied peninsula, refused to deliver a report at all.
Therefore, European Pravda says, the powers of parliamentarians from Russia will most probably be confirmed even without those limitations that remained available after the PACE's controversial decision to let the Russian delegates return after they have been sanctioned for five years over Crimea.
As UNIAN reported, the PACE in April 2014 deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote and excluded its representatives from all governing bodies of the Assembly over the annexation of Crimea. In this regard, Russia has not paid contributions to the Council of Europe since June 2017. Many PACE members and politicians regarded such actions of Russia as blackmail.
In the early hours of June 25, 2019, the PACE adopted a resolution titled: "Strengthening the decision-making process of the Parliamentary Assembly concerning credentials and voting." The document was supported by 118 parliamentarians, 62 voted against with 10 abstentions. The resolution cancelled the mechanism for imposing sanctions, which was in effect at the PACE.
The adoption of the resolution creates an opportunity for lifting sanctions against the Russian delegation. Now Russian parliamentarians will be able to take part in the work of the Assembly without fulfilling any conditions concerning the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including the end of the occupation of Crimea and certain parts of Donbas.
The Ukrainian delegation to the PACE appealed against the reinstatement of the Russian parliamentarians' powers in the Assembly.
The Russian delegates have already submitted applications for participation in the next PACE session.