STRASBOURG, January 27. /TASS/. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) winter session held debates Wednesday on the issue of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s arrest. Russian lawmakers responded to complaints of Western colleagues who accused Moscow of violating principles of the organization. The discussion ended without adopting any document.

"The topic of Navalny is abused as a pretext for a direct attack on Russia, the president and our delegation here in the assembly. These debates are held as a ‘wappenshaw’ of this anti-Russian group, if not to say gang," Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) and head of the Russian delegation to PACE Pyotr Tolstoy commented. "These people still gripped by inferiority complex and are unlikely to get rid of it any time soon. Therefore, the key meaning of their life is brazen Russophobia and ignoring norms, law as well as ignoring facts in the Navalny case. We will continue to defend our position, hopefully, the rational majority will hear it.".