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Leaders of PACE political groups hold talks at Russian State Duma

Deputy head of the Russian delegation to PACE Leonid Slutsky says the meeting focused on possible steps to make relations between Moscow and Strasbourg more constructive

MOSCOW, July 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Leaders of political groups of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) had talks at the Russian lower parliament house on Monday, a State Duma spokesman told ITAR-TASS.

“State Duma leaders met with a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Russian delegation to PACE,” the spokesman said.

“The meeting centered focused on possible steps to make relations between Moscow and Strasbourg more constructive,” said Leonid Slutsky, deputy head of the Russian delegation to PACE and chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

According to Slutsky, it was stressed that until the PACE listed its sanctions against Russia, stripping Moscow of the voting right and expelling it from PACE governing bodies, the Russian delegation would not resume its full-scale work at the PACE.

On April 10, following Crimea’s accession to Russia, PACE passed a resolution depriving the Russian delegation of the voting right and expelling its representatives from PACE governing bodies till the end of 2014. The Russian delegation left the PACE assembly hall when the Parliamentary Assembly was discussing the resolution. When the resolution was finally passed, the Russian delegation quit the session.