Photo from echrblog.blogspot.com
MPs from the Netherlands in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have drafted a resolution that proposes to deprive the Russian delegation to the body of its voting powers, Russian newspaper Gazeta.ru has reported.
The issue may be considered in the first part of the Assembly's Winter session 2015 in Strasbourg (26-30 January), when the powers of all delegations are to be restored automatically. Several members of the Russian delegation were deprived of some authorities in connection with Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
As reported earlier, in April 2014, the Russian delegation was denied the right to vote until January 2015 following the Russian annexation of Crimea. Formally, at the beginning of the year, the Russian delegation will be automatically granted the right to vote in the PACE.
Meanwhile, in August head of the Russian delegation to the PACE Alexei Pushkov stated that if sanctions against Russia in the assembly were to be maintained, he would not see "reasons for the Russian delegation to participate in the activities of the PACE in 2015."