The return of the Russian delegation to PACE may discredit the Assembly, said Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian TV Channel 5 reported.
”In terms of the overall diplomatic situation, from the international perspective – if the Russians next year manage to return by hook or crook, failing to comply with requirements of resolutions and moreover forcing the Assembly to change in their favor, this will be an escalation of the crisis of the very Assembly, it will discredit it,” Kuleba said.
”We have learned how to fight the Russians on different fronts, but the Assembly will lose its status of an authoritative international institution by doing such a thing. We believe that it is the Assembly that bears the main risks of the return of the Russians,” said the Ukrainian envoy.
As UNIAN reported earlier, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt insists that the Assembly should take all necessary steps to return Russian delegates to the plenary hall.
While opening the autumn session of PACE, he said that the situation with no Russian delegation at the Assembly is beneficial neither to Russia nor the Assembly or any of the other 46 member states. Agramunt said that he had taken steps to restore relations with Russia and did it openly, notifying the leaders of groups.
