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Lawmaker believes Russia should return to PACE

According to a lawmaker, Russia should defend its point of view in PACE
Speaker of Russia’s State Duma Sergei Naryshkin Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma Press Service/TASS
Speaker of Russia’s State Duma Sergei Naryshkin
© Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma Press Service/TASS

MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. Russia’s delegation should be back at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to advocate its point of view, speaker of Russia’s sixth State Duma lower parliament house Sergei Naryshkin, who has won a seat in the next Duma in Sunday’s parliamentary polls, said on Tuesday.

"I am confident that the Russian delegation should be present at the Parliamentary Assembly [of the Council of Europe]. It must defend its point of view, defend its truth," he told a videoconference at the Komsomolskaya Pravda website.

He said the PACE resolution depriving the Russian delegation of some of its competences, including the right to vote, was a "non-legal decision." "It runs counter to the values of parliamentarism, democracy and violated the charter of the Council of Europe," Naryshkin said.

In his words, the decision to strip the Russian delegation of the right to vote "was passed under the pressure of the hostile, screaming and shouting Russophobic minority in PACE."

"I am sure the majority understands the unfairness and unlawfulness of this decision. But time should pass. And judging by the discussions we are now having with the PACE leadership, we see that the attitudes are changing," he said.