MOSCOW, June 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian will not take part in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) until it lifts all the sanctions imposed on the Russian delegation over Crimea’s accession to Russia, Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said on Monday.

“The June session of the PACE started on Monday without Russia. Our delegation will not take part in the PACE work until the sanctions are lifted,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

The summer PACE session opened on Monday in Strasbourg. The session is expected to focus on the crisis in Ukraine and escalation of conflict in its southeastern regions. Stripped of the right to vote and expelled from the PACE governing bodies till the end of the current year, the Russian delegation has skipped the session.