Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland demanded that Russia pay a membership fee to the organization before June 30, but Moscow refused to do this. This was told by a source in the Federation Council. "Russia will not pay its contribution until the PACE has created discriminatory conditions for the work of our delegation," RIA Novosti quotes him.. At the same time, he stressed that the organization's regulations have not changed so far, as the Russian side demanded. The CE has not yet formally commented on this information, however, it is noted that the organization will not punish Russia for failure to pay a fee.

Recall that the conflict between Russia and the Council of Europe worsened in connection with the reunification of the Crimea and resulted in the deprivation of the basic powers of the Russian delegation to PACE. At the end of June 2017, the Russian side announced its intention to suspend payments to the budget of the Council of Europe. However, in March of this year, PACE recognized that the return of Turkey to ordinary payers, as well as the suspension of payments by Russia, caused the organization to face financial problems.