Some points in PACE resolution unacceptable to Russia :: Charter'97 :: News

Many points of the resolution on Russia’s fulfilling its obligations to the Council of Europe and amendments to the resolution have nothing to do with Russia’s obligations. It is deplorable that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) supported on a number of questions the positions of those countries that took advantage of the debate in their narrow nationalistic aims, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Committee for International Relations of the State Duma, the head of the Russian delegation, thus commented to reporters on the resolution on Russia’s fulfilment of its obligations to the Council of Europe the PACE adopted on Wednesday. He made it plain that he meant the Georgian deputies and deputies of the Baltic countries who were persistent in toughening the criticism in the resolution and proposed three quarters of the number of amendments for the purpose.

“The point on the ‘occupied Baltic states’ that was left in the text of the resolution on their insistence is absolutely unacceptable to us,” Kosachev said. “We agreed to its inclusion in the wording of Russia’s obligations prior to the election of Russian president in 1996 when Russia was acceding to the Council of Europe. Now this wording assumes a political tinge and is untenable from the legal viewpoint, and its support by the PACE is an obvious mistake,” he said.

The recommendation to Russia to build its relations with Belarus depending on the course of the political reform in that country is not in the competence of the Council of Europe and has absolutely nothing to do with the monitoring of its obligations to the Council of Europe, Kosachev said.

There is a whole number of aspects of the resolution that do not suit us, he said. However, the resolution on the whole does not have a destructive character and contains a number of objective views on Russia’s further work to ensure the supremacy of law, promote democracy and protect human rights. In this sense the experience of cooperation with the Council of Europe will be extremely useful to Russia, Kosachev said.