Ukraine is preparing to “lie with bones” in Russia’s path
Ukraine considers the European advisory body, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to be the main front of its struggle with Russia. Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov stated this at a press conference in Moscow.
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“Ukraine considers PACE the main front in the fight against Russia in the international arena. They are concentrating a lot of effort there. For them this is a fundamental issue. They will lay their bones to prove that sanctions against Russia cannot be lifted,” Pushkov said.
At the same time, he emphasized, for Russia the lifting of sanctions is a fundamental condition for returning to PACE.
“This issue was discussed, but supporters, and there are such, failed to carry it through. I don’t see any prospects for our delegation returning in January. The aggressive minority will once again impose its position on the passive majority. This will be Ukraine, the Baltic states, Sweden, Poland and several other countries. They will roll out a whole host of arguments why Russia cannot be returned without sanctions. The probability of such an outcome is 99%,” the senator believes.
Earlier, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjörn Jagland said that Russia should resume work as part of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Sanctions were imposed on the Russian delegation to PACE in April 2014 after the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation. The State Duma delegation was deprived of the right to vote, and its members were deprived of the right to occupy leadership positions in PACE, be appointed as rapporteurs and participate in monitoring missions.
In response, as a sign of protest, since July 2014, the Russian delegation has refused to participate in PACE meetings. Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said that Russia will not recognize the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the powers of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, since the Russian delegation does not participate in voting for their candidacies.
A number of observers do not rule out that one of the decisive factors that pushes Secretary General Jagland towards rapprochement with Russia is financial. After all, since July 2017, Moscow announced its intention to suspend the payment of membership fees to the Council of Europe budget.
Ukraine is preparing to "lie down with its bones" in Russia's path.