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Envoy warns ultimatums hurled by PACE, Council of Europe against Russia doomed to fail

The lawmaker assured that Moscow won’t tolerate the domineering tone and will leave the organization in the event that its trilateral mechanism is launched

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Ultimatums against Russia coming from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its Committee of Ministers are senseless, Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) and head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pyotr Tolstoy said in an interview with TASS.

Moscow won’t tolerate the domineering tone and will leave this organization in the event that its trilateral mechanism is launched, Tolstoy warned.

The lawmaker recalled that at PACE’s spring session "a fully expected and unacceptable resolution on Russia was passed" over the situation with convicted blogger Alexey Navalny. "On the whole, this resolution is aimed at forcing Russia out of the Council of Europe’s bodies," Tolstoy emphasized. "The resolution contains a call on the Committee of Ministers at its June 7 meeting to hurl another ultimatum against Russia and simultaneously two anti-Russian reports are being hammered out on the so-called poisoning of Navalny and on political prisoners in Russia."

"In fact, ultimatums won’t work for Russia," Tolstoy stressed, noting that those ultimatums that the European Court of Human Rights tried to set demanding the release in no way hold any legal stance but are meddling in the affairs of Russia’s judicial system, and the ECHR has no right to do that.

"So, none of these decisions will be fulfilled by us. All these ultimatums by the Assembly or the Committee of Ministers are also meaningless," Tolstoy stressed.

The lawmaker also assured that the launch of the trilateral mechanism will entail Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe. "If this domineering approach prevails, then certainly, we don’t need membership in this organization," he pointed out.

In January, PACE enshrined in its regulation the possibility of using a trilateral mechanism of responding to violations of the Council of Europe’s charter. Such a mechanism can be triggered in the event of serious violations. The mechanism stipulates sending a high-level mission to the country and suspending the violator’s representation.