MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Five states that are waging the anti-Russian campaign at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom, the head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said on Monday.
"The delegations of those countries that are most aggressive in the issue of the EU sanctions against Russia and that participate in the West’s anti-Russian hysteria most actively are against lifting sanctions against the Russian delegation," Alexei Pushkov said.
These five states are the main "animators" of the anti-Russian campaign that has been uninterruptedly held within the Parliamentary Assembly, the lawmaker told TASS.
Pushkov said he hopes that the representatives of the states that understand that without Russia PACE limits itself in its own capacities and isolates itself "will become the majority at PACE and will come to a conclusion that all the powers of the Russian delegation should be restored."
PACE’s January 2015 session extended sanctions against the Russian delegation depriving it of the right to vote and participate in the organization’s leading bodies till April. Russia, in turn, suspended all contacts with PACE till the end of 2015.
The discussion on Russia’s powers at PACE scheduled on Monday has been put off. The PACE Bureau, the Assembly's governing body, has advised postponing the vote until the summer session due in June.