FM Kuleba slams PACE decision not to sanction Russian delegation

FM Kuleba slams PACE decision not to sanction Russian delegation / Photo from UNIAN

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has criticized the decision made by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to confirm the credentials of the Russian delegation and refuse to impose sanctions against it.

"This PACE has broken down long ago. The new one has not been brought in," he wrote on Twitter on January 28, 2021.

Read alsoPACE suggests not to apply sanctions to Russian delegationRussia in PACE: Previous developments

• In April 2014, PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the right to vote and expelled its representatives from all governing bodies of the Assembly over the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
• Russia then refused to pay contributions to the Council of Europe as of June 2017. Many PACE members and politicians called such actions of Russia blackmail.
• On June 25, 2019, PACE adopted a resolution that canceled the existing mechanism for imposing sanctions against delegations.
• On June 26, 2019, PACE voted to ratify the credentials of the Russian delegation without imposing any sanctions. This allowed Russia to return to the Assembly's session hall, and it reportedly resumed paying its contributions.
• On January 25, PACE backed Ukraine's initiative to appeal the credentials of the Russian delegation.
• On January 28, PACE decided to turn down the initiative of the Ukrainian delegates to apply restrictions to the Russian delegation over the actions breaching the principles of the Council of Europe.