The Presidential Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) invited four Russian lawmakers to Paris to discuss the report of the main candidate for the post of the new head of the Assembly, Michele Nicoletti, on the prospects of the Council of Europe. On Wednesday, November 29, RIA Novosti reported quoting a source in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. "The Russian delegation will go, but in what composition - it is not decided yet," - said the source familiar with the situation. Earlier, the head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, admitted that he could go to Paris on December 14 for a meeting of the PACE political commission as part of the Russian delegation. However, he stressed that this step does not at all mean that Moscow has revised its position regarding participation in the work of this organization. Russia does not attend PACE sessions since 2016. and does not pay membership fees from 2017. , after the Russian delegation was deprived of the right to vote because of the events in Ukraine. In the Council of Europe, the latest, financial, circumstance was greatly disappointed. And when in Moscow they warned that they were thinking about leaving the organization altogether, they were even more worried. Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland bluntly stated that such a move would be a "rollback", so he intends to make every effort to return Russia to PACE. And here it's not just that the RF contribution is one-tenth of the CE budget. Entering into European institutions imposes certain obligations on countries. For example, Russia has declared a moratorium on the death penalty for precisely this reason. Leaving the organization will remove this, and a number of other restrictions that the Europeans are so proud of. And since Russia has made it clear that it will return to PACE only on full rights, it means that it will have to remove regulatory sanctions from it.

Jagland talks about this without equivocation. In Berlin, this idea is also openly supported. Kiev, of course, is against, and even threatened that he himself will leave the PACE, if Moscow returns there. But the benefits for the organization and Europe as a whole are obvious to everyone.

Moreover, it is clear that the lifting of sanctions within the framework of the PACE is a symbolic step, but a turning point in all respects. And the supporters of this idea in Europe are increasingly.