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Federation Council speaker to hold talks with PACE head

The meeting will be held during the second Eurasian Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg

President of PACE Liliane Maury-Pasquier wikimedia.org/Mariep

President of PACE Liliane Maury-Pasquier

© wikimedia.org/Mariep

ST. PETERSBURG, September 19. /TASS/. Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko will hold comprehensive negotiations with Liliane Maury-Pasquier, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The meeting will be held during the second Eurasian Women’s Forum that is taking place in St. Petersburg these days.

Read also

PACE’s October review of delegations’ rights may be ‘moment of truth’ — Russian MP

"We’ll have full-fledged negotiations with her [Pasquier.] It [will] not be on the run, as we’ve got things to discuss. We’re very glad that Ms. Pasquier is interested in this dialogue," Matviyenko told reporters on Wednesday.

She noted that Pasquier understands the importance of the work of all the 47 states of the Council of Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly. "We will discuss the current situation and probable further decisions together," Matviyenko said. The senator reiterated that Russian parliamentary members are taking part in the PACE working group that is preparing changes to the regulations, as well as in various other events. "There will be a substantial dialogue; it is important that it continues," Matviyenko concluded.

The second Eurasian Women’s Forum is taking place in St. Petersburg and will run until September 21, 2018. The main theme of the event is "Women for Global Security and Sustainable Development." TASS is the forum’s information partner.

The PACE sanctions

The Russian delegation in the PACE was deprived of the right to vote in April 2014 due to the events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reintegration into Russia. In 2015, the PACE twice studied the issue of restoring the powers of Russia’s delegation, but sanctions became only stricter then. The Russian delegation stated in response that it will not work in such conditions, and in 2016-2017 it did not send an application to confirm its powers due to the persistent Russophobic sentiments in Strasbourg.

In late June 2017 it emerged that Moscow suspends its contributions to the Council of Europe due to the non-participation of the Russian delegation in the PACE’s operation. The Russian side simultaneously suggested introducing a provision to the assembly’s regulations which says that no one has the right to deprive any national delegation of its powers. On January 11, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky reported that Russia will not send an application to confirm the Russian delegation’s powers in the PACE in 2018.

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