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Majority in PACE pretend not to see protests in east and southeast of Ukraine

"Any attempts to prove that people have reasons to take to the streets have been rejected by a majority of the PACE Commission on monitoring," the head of the Russian delegation says

© ITAR-TASS/Mitya Aleshkovsky

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STRASBOURG, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. "A majority of PACE deputies pretend not to see the population's protests in the east and southeast of Ukraine," Head of the Russian delegation to PACE Alexei Pushkov, who chairs a Committee on international affairs of the State Duma, told journalists on Wednesday after a meeting of the PACE Commission on monitoring at which proposed amendments to a resolution on Ukraine were discussed.

"Any attempts to prove that people take to the streets they have a good reasons for that have been rejected by a majority of the PACE Commission on monitoring. The draft resolution on Ukraine has been amended by making technical corrections only, but if a proposed amendment has a political character or ascertains a fact it is immediately rejected," Pushkov said.

"I regret to say that we deal here with an absolutely politicized and purely geopolitical approach. All the Kiev administration is doing is right, while all that Russia is doing it wrong. Facts have been turned upside down and distorted altogether, "Pushkov said.

"A discussion is practically absent. Most of the PACE deputies have been following a conspicuous line in support of the forces which belong to the Ukrainian “coalition” irrespective of the fact whether the coalition are racists or neo-fascists, which does not matter at all," Pushkov said.

PACE has been conducting "urgent" debates on the situation in Ukraine on Wednesday and is planning to pass a resolution which strongly criticizes Russia for joining the territory of Crimea to the Russian Federation. The Russian delegation has declared a strong protest against the proposed draft.

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