Russia may cut payments to PACE in retaliation for sanctions - lawmaker
12 April 2014, 09:22 -- Russia may reduce its payments to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly after a PACE resolution on Thursday that temporarily deprived the Russian delegation of its voting rights, excluded it from PACE's leading bodies and barred it from taking part in election observation missions, a senior lawmaker said.
'I don't think that stopping to pay the fee is under consideration at the moment. But the fee may be reduced if the Russian delegation stops taking part in the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
It is an argument to take into account because Russian money makes up 4% of the Council of Europe budget. We are among the five main payers,' Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, said in a program on Russia's Rossiya 24 television on Friday.
He mentioned that this year Russia has paid 23 million euros to PACE's budget. 'We remain a member of PACE, nobody can throw us out now - the resolution has been passed. But, for our part, we may stay out of the sessions to show thereby that we can't accept such a discriminatory approach,' he said, Interfax reports.
Thursday's resolution, carried by a vote of 145 versus 21 with 22 abstentions, said it represented PACE's 'condemnation and disapproval of the Russian Federation's actions with regard to Ukraine.' The sanctions will remain in effect until the end of the 2014 session, which formally closes in mid-January 2015.
PACE rejected a motion for suspending the Russian delegation's powers for the same period. The Russian delegation stormed out of the current PACE session in protest and announced that it reserved the right to reconsider its membership in the Assembly.
Despite its rhetoric, PACE does not want to lose Moscow as partner - Russian MP
Despite the aggressive rhetoric, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) does not want to lose such a partner as Moscow, which was confirmed by the failure of voting for the resolution on excluding Russia from the PACE, head of the Russian delegation to the Assembly, Alexei Pushkov believes.
'One would think, it's a radical, harsh (resolution), but why not after all (was it not adopted)? Because they knew perfectly well that if they accepted the proposal to divest the Russian delegation of authority, Russia might eventually not appear in the PACE, and they don't want it to happen. They want us to stay, they want to criticize us, they want to promote themselves at our expense, to be able to look so very principled at the expense of Russia,' Pushkov said in a live television broadcast of the Russia 24 TV channel.
Thursday, the PACE discussed the authority of the Russian delegation in the Assembly in connection with Crimea's joining Russia. The Assembly excluded the Russian delegation from the governing bodies of the Assembly - the Bureau of the Assembly, the Presidential Committee, and the Standing Committee. PACE also deprived the Russian delegation of its voting rights and the right to participate in election-observation missions. These sanctions are in force till the end of 2014. The Russian delegation left the spring session of PACE in protest.
Describing the atmosphere at the last session, Pushkov said that it was very aggressive, and conversation partners were avoiding dialogue. 'There is no discussion. They say that if the Russians did not come to discuss the issue of Russia, they do not want a dialogue. But this is not a dialogue. It was the Inquisition, an attempt to put a Spanish boot on our leg and to tighten its screws as the Spanish Inquisition used to do. But we refuse to participate in such procedures,' Pushkov said.
According to him, under the current crisis in the relations with the EU, Russia will more actively cooperate with the East. 'We are a European country, but Europe is not the only pebble on the beach. I believe Europe overestimates its importance. This is an important region and the European Union is our main trading partner, and I don't think we are interested in deepening this crisis. But, of course, now we must think about what alternatives we have. Europe is not independent; it very much depends on the US,' Pushkov noted.
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