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Anti-Russian sanctions

Russia refuses to receive any PACE missions in 2015 — lawmaker

The Russian PACE delegation recalled its initiatives: on a possible visit by PACE representatives of Ukrainian national Nadezhda Savchenko and on preparation of a report on human rights in Crimea

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe EPA/PARICK SEEGER

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

© EPA/PARICK SEEGER

MOSCOW, February 2 /TASS/. Russia will not receive any missions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2015, Alexey Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma lower house of parliament/ Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Monday.

Pushkov told a meeting of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Committee for International Affairs that Russia had submitted two initiatives to the recent PACE session that took place last week: on a possible visit by PACE representatives of Ukrainian national Nadezhda Savchenko who is in custody in Russia and on preparation of a report on human rights in Crimea on condition that a similar report will be prepared on the human rights situation in southeast Ukraine.

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"We had to recall both proposals - on Savchenko and Crimea - because we are not going to participate in PACE’s work until year’s end at least," Pushkov explained adding that the speakers of the two chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly /parliament/ had worked out that consolidated stance.

"No one is planning to meet PACE missions here in Russia," Pushkov concluded.

Earlier on Monday, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, said that two PACE delegations were expected to arrive in Russia to discuss the case of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko and the "Crimean dossier."

He added that the recent PACE session adopted a resolution which contained a call on the speakers of two national parliaments(/Russian and Ukrainian) or their representatives to create a working group to contribute to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

On January 28, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided to extend the sanctions imposed on the Russian delegation during the spring session and deprived it of the right to vote and participate in the PACE leading bodies until April. After that, the Russian delegation suspended its work at PACE till the end of 2015.

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