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Participants of PACE meeting urge to restore Russian delegation’s powers

In April, PACE decided to strip the Russian delegation of its voting rights until January 2015 and to suspend its right to be represented in the assembly’s leading bodies

PACE President Anne Brasseur at a meeting with Russia’s lower house speaker Sergey Naryshkin Alexander Shalgin/TASS

PACE President Anne Brasseur at a meeting with Russia’s lower house speaker Sergey Naryshkin

© Alexander Shalgin/TASS

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Russian lawmaker warns PACE against "following Ukraine’s bad example"

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. The participants of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Presidential Committee meeting in Moscow on Thursday called to restore the powers of the Russian delegation at PACE, Russia’s lower house speaker said.

“Both sides have voiced the need to restore full powers of the Russian delegation, primarily the right to vote,” Sergey Naryshkin told journalists after the meeting.

The lawmakers said however that Russia “understands no one may guarantee this as the decision is taken not by the Presidential Committee but by the Assembly in general.” “We presume that the Russian delegation should return with all its rights to Strasbourg, to PACE,” Naryshkin stressed.

At a separate bilateral meeting with Naryshkin, PACE President Anne Brasseur stressed the need for dialogue and diplomacy in an effort to resolve difficult issues linked to the situation in Ukraine and the crisis in the world in general.

Brasseur added that parliamentarians bear the full responsibility for joint actions and reminded of basic principles of the Council of Europe related to the freedom of press and spread of information which she said should not be used for manipulating people.

The PACE chief has also expressed readiness to participate in the conference initiated by Russia to discuss the issues of morality and ethics in the international politics.

In April, PACE decided to strip the Russian delegation of its voting rights until January 2015 and to suspend its right to be represented in the assembly’s leading bodies and to participate in the election-observation missions.

In protest, Russian delegates and senators left the spring session before its official end and refused to further participate in the work of PACE. Since then, the delegation has not come to Strasbourg and missed the summer and autumn sessions.

PACE is due to do a formal reaffirmation of all the powers of the delegation in January 2015.

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Foreign policy PACE Sergey Naryshkin

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