Russia’s power at PACE may be nullified before Jan. 2016

If the PACE members vote at the June session to completely nullify the Russian delegation’s powers, the decision will be effective until the January 2016 session, the PACE President Anne Brasseur told RIA Novosti Apr. 24.

In late January 2015, PACE adopted a resolution, which deprived the Russian delegation of a number of important powers, including the right to vote, due to the situation in Ukraine until April.

The Russian delegation, in response, left the assembly until late 2015.

Later PACE made a decision not to discuss the powers of the Russian delegation at the April session and moved the discussion to June.

“I can’t nip on ahead, and talk about the results, but if they speak out for a complete nullification of [Russian delegation’s] authorities, this will last until the end of the PACE session, until January 2016,” said Brasseur, answering a question about what should the Russian side expect in June.

The assembly head also said that in late January 2016 “there will be a new session, during which the powers of all the national delegations will be again on the agenda ... for example, the powers of a delegation can be questioned.”

Answering a question about what will happen if Russia will no longer be present in the organization, Brasseur said it is needed to see the development of the situation in June.

The PACE president also stressed that she believes it would be “a real mistake not to try to engage in dialogue.”

She explained that “therefore the parliamentary diplomacy is important, which is why it is needed to meet, to speak, to try to understand each other.”

“Up to this point, until January, we succeeded in this, in spite of all the differences between us. Now we don’t meet, we are not talking. We don’t keep in contact at the moment, which I regret,” Brasseur said in conclusion.

/By Trend/