Speaker of the Council of Federation Valentina Matvienko believes that the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the Russian delegation is contrary to the principles of democracy. So she commented on the statement of the CE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, made by him the day before during the autumn session of the PACE that “if Russia does not start paying contributions to the Council of Europe budget by June 2019. , the organization’s committee of ministers (CMCE) not only can, but will also be obliged to exclude it from the list of member countries ". “The PACE discriminatory decision on the Russian Federation contradicts the norms of law and the principles of democracy,” Matvienko quotes RIA Novosti on Thursday, October 11.. According to the senator, after meeting with Assembly President Lilian Marie Pasquier, “we still had hope that there was a chance to remove the discriminatory provision from the organization’s charter”, which, among other things, contradicts the opinion of the CE Committee of Ministers. "But recent events have shown that our hopes were not realized.. This issue was suspended, and, perhaps, in January, the PACE will reconsider it ", - said Matvienko. According to the senator, the matter is not even in the membership fee that Russia is paying to the CE. "We cannot fulfill our financial obligations while (in the assembly) our delegation is discriminated". Attempts to discuss in the PACE (which was largely due to the Ukrainian delegation failed on Tuesday, October 9 - ed.. ) The easing of regulations regarding a number of the powers of national delegations could be tied to a financial issue, the senator added. Matvienko said that the Russian Foreign Ministry in the near future will hold a meeting of the interdepartmental commission, which will discuss topics related to interaction with the Council of Europe, with PACE. "We will take the decision that would be appropriate," - concluded the head of the Federation Council. Now we need to figure out what Russia and the Council of Europe are losing. The same Jagland today said that after the Russian withdrawal from the European organization, Russian citizens will not be able to contact the ECHR, monitoring bodies, in particular, will be deprived of the right to monitor the situation in prisons. Yury Berestnev, editor-in-chief of the European Court of Human Rights Bulletin, scientific and analytical journal, spoke eloquently about the money question.

He believes that without Russian contributions (and this is about 11 million euros), the Council of Europe will have to cut about 200 of its employees, as well as dismiss all Russians, "of whom there are many, with large payments of severance pay". And the organization has no money for that.. “There’s nothing left for Jagland, either to convene an extraordinary summit of the Council of Europe to make decisions on PACE reform“ from above, ”or to resign ahead of time, as if the organization had collapsed,” the expert said disappointingly for Strasbourg.