STRASBOURG, June 27. /TASS/. Russia will present its candidacy for the position of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deputy speaker at one of the upcoming sessions in October 2019 or January 2020, head of the Russian delegation to PACE Pyotr Tolstoy told reporters on Thursday.

As one of the major contributors to PACE, Russia has the right to offer a candidacy for the post of the assembly’s deputy speaker. On Wednesday, Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s (lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky fell short of the required majority of votes in the second round of the confirmation vote.

"We will present our candidacy during one of the next sessions. We will make a decision when to do it - in autumn or in January, there is no rush, we are not in a hurry," Tolstoy said in response to a question by TASS.

"There is nothing tragic about this, it is obvious that they decided to mobilize (anti-Russian forces - TASS)," he added, noting that during the second round’s vote, the number of votes against Slutsky has risen sharply. "This is the work of infamous delegations [with anti-Russian views]," the MP stated. He reminded that the position of deputy speaker "is reserved for Russia in any case." "We need a person to work there, and this work requires a permanent presence," he noted.

On June 26, participants of the PACE summer session approved the resolution that reinstates Russia’s full powers within the assembly. The organization has failed to approve the amendments dealing with additional sanctions against Russia. The Ukrainian delegation left the session in protest, followed by representatives of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, as well as several delegates from Poland and Slovakia.