In a move opposed by most former Soviet-bloc countries, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided this week to end Russia’s suspension, which began after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Senator Aleksander Pociej, a Polish member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said after Tuesday’s vote that the decision had chiefly been pushed through by legislators from countries in southern Europe as well as France, Germany and Turkey.
“They argued that the Council of Europe is a bridge of sorts for debate, even with those countries that are very undemocratic,” Pociej told public broadcaster Polish Radio in an interview.
He added that this line of thinking eventually prevailed: “that it is better if the residents of Russia were under the protection of the Council of Europe” and its institutions such as the Venice Commission and the European Court of Human Rights, “than if they were completely deprived of such assistance.”
“On the other hand, our arguments … —of the Baltic states, Poland, and of course Ukraine as well as Georgia ..., but also Britain—were that nothing has changed for the better, but for the worse” since Russia’s voting rights were suspended after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Pociej said.
He added that “human rights violations in Russia are far worse today than they were when the country faced sanctions in the form of the suspension of its voting rights.”
Move under fire
In Tuesday’s vote, 118 Council of Europe lawmakers were in favour of Russia being reinstated, while 62 opposed and 10 abstained.
Top officials in former Soviet-bloc countries have blasted the decision.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius has been quoted as saying in a radio interview that the decision was controversial and harmful.
He also took to Twitter to say that the vote dealt "a serious blow" to the credibility of the Council of Europe.
Latvia's foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, has called the vote “regrettable and disappointing” in a Twitter post. He said his country opposed the move “because it undermines respect for key values: democracy, rule of law and human rights.”
Meanwhile, former Russian world chess champion Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, has slammed the decision by the Council of Europe legislators in a series of strong-worded tweets.
Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe aims to uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law in its 47 member states. The organisation includes all 28 members of the European Union.
Russia's voting rights were reinstated ahead of Wednesday's expected election of a new secretary-general for the organisation to replace Norway's Thorbjørn Jagland.
(gs/pk)
Source: Polish Radio