STRASBOURG, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) hopes that it will not be completely stripped of its powers in the assembly, said Leonid Slutsky, a member of the Russian delegation.
Right now the leading factions mainly support the “soft option,” Slutsky said after a meeting of the PACE Bureau on Friday.
“There is a significant chance that we’ll remain at the session,” Slutsky said, adding that “we'll slam doors only if the initiative by a British parliamentarian on completely stripping the Russian delegation of its powers is approved.”
“We hope for a softer option,” Slutsky said. Responding to a question about his recent inclusion on a list of officials sanctioned by the EU, Slutsky said he had not had any problems entering Europe.
The April session of PACE is being held from Monday to Sunday in Strasbourg, France. Two controversial initiatives have been put forward, one to strip the Russian delegation of its powers in the assembly, proposed by Britain’s Robert Walter, and the other to strip Russia of its voting rights, submitted by Denmark’s Michael Aastrup Jensen.
Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, adopted a resolution on Tuesday warning the assembly not to make such a decision. The head of the Russian delegation in PACE, Alexei Pushkov, said that Russian delegates would walk out of the assembly at the first sign of a vote on their sanctioning.
In March, the foreign ministers of the European Union imposed sanctions on 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials, whom they consider guilty of "undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine." The sanctions included a ban on entering the EU.
The reunification of Crimea with Russia was finalized on March 18, following a popular vote approving the measure and an appeal to Moscow to rejoin the country after having been gifted to Ukraine by Soviet leaders 60 years ago.
