Possibility of Russia-PACE Dialogue Made Illusory by Sanctions

Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov doubts the possibility of a dialogue between the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Russia after the Assembly passed anti-Russian sanctions.

“The PACE chairman wants a dialogue with Russia? There should be no illusion. I don’t think that after the PACE’s anti-Russian sanctions it is possible to talk about this dialogue,” the parliamentarian wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

A day earlier the PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the voting right until the end of the year and imposed a number of sanctions.

The Assembly has decided to confirm the powers of the Russian delegations but suspend its voting right until the end of the 2014 session, according to the PACE resolution.

Nor will Russian representatives be able to work in the Assembly’s senior structures and monitor elections. In sign of protest the Russian delegation walked out of the PACE’s April session but reserved the right to consider further participation in the organization’s activity, TASS reports.

Russia may cut payments to PACE in retaliation for sanctions – lawmaker

Russia may reduce its payments to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly after a PACE resolution on Thursday that temporarily deprived the Russian delegation of its voting rights, excluded it from PACE’s leading bodies and barred it from taking part in election observation missions, a senior lawmaker said.

“I don’t think that stopping to pay the fee is under consideration at the moment. But the fee may be reduced if the Russian delegation stops taking part in the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

It is an argument to take into account because Russian money makes up 4% of the Council of Europe budget. We are among the five main payers,” Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, said in a program on Russia’s Rossiya 24 television on Friday.

He mentioned that this year Russia has paid 23 million euros to PACE’s budget. “We remain a member of PACE, nobody can throw us out now – the resolution has been passed. But, for our part, we may stay out of the sessions to show thereby that we can’t accept such a discriminatory approach,” he said, Interfax reports.

Mass media report Russian flag raised above Sloviansk town administration

On the other hand, the mayor of Sloviansk Nelya Shtepa has said that the town administration building was seized on Saturday by activists and militia volunteers, who removed the Ukrainian flag from the building and replaced it with a Russian one.

More than 1,000 people are inside the town administration building, the mayor said.

“I asked them who they were, they said they are Donetsk militia volunteers. I know many, they are our people, and they demand a referendum. We all agree, I cannot contradict them,” Shtepa said.

“Three days ago I wrote to the Ukrainian Prime Minister notifying him that we should sit down at the table of negotiations. Today the whole of Sloviansk has taken to the streets in support of the activists. The Ukrainian flag has now been removed from the town administration building and replaced with a Russian one,” the Sloviansk mayor said.

“We shall hold a referendum, what is happening here says that the Ukrainian authorities should think carefully. I am certain that tomorrow they will announce a decision to hold a referendum in Ukrainian regions. Although, I wonder why they did not ask the people earlier what it wants,” Shtepa said.

Ninety-two percent of local businesses work with Russia, “and partnership with this country is important for us :, the Kyiv authorities must heed that the people want dialogue, stability, peace and order,” she said.

Voice Of Russia

R.S