In PACE, "by numerous requests" decided to explain to interested citizens the situation in the organization in relation to the delegation from Russia. They argue that from 2016. there are no sanctions against the Russians technically in the assembly. The corresponding statement was made by PACE Secretary General Wojciech Sawicki, who is responsible for monitoring the work of the Assembly and the implementation of its decisions, as well as coordinating the work of the committees of the organization. "In April 2014. and then in January 2015. Parliamentary Assembly addressed the issue of the powers of the Russian parliamentary delegation as a result of the annexation of the Crimea by Russia. In both cases, the Assembly, after debates and voting, decided not to deprive the Russian delegation of its powers, but to deprive the Russian parliamentarians of certain rights in the Assembly, including the right to vote, "the statement published today on the organization’s website. It is noted that "all national parliaments are obliged by the Statute of the Council of Europe to represent the authority of their delegations at the opening of each regular session of the assembly, and in accordance with the rules in force must be represented every January". If the data are not submitted on time, before the opening of the regular session, the delegation is automatically excluded from the Assembly throughout the year,. until January next, explained in the document. At the same time, Savitsky points out, any “sanctions” (for some reason in quotes) that the Assembly imposes on the national parliamentary delegation “can remain in force no more than before the opening of the next regular session (in January of the coming year)”. According to him, in 2014 and 2015, after the PACE decision to deprive our delegation of some rights, the Russian parliamentarians "decided to suspend their participation in the Assembly".

In January 2016. in January 2017. and in January 2018. The parliament of the Russian Federation decided not to grant the authority of its delegation to the Assembly, Sawicki reminded, therefore, he noted, the Russians had not been in PACE for almost three years.

“From this date (January 16th) no“ sanctions ”were imposed on the Russian delegation, and the absence of the Russian delegation is the result of its own decision,” he stressed. Further, the Secretary General mentioned that the deputies from the Russian Federation in several statements made it clear that they would return to the Assembly only after it decided to "exclude from its Rules of Procedure all provisions that could lead to challenging the powers of national delegations and the possible imposition of sanctions" on them. In a long paragraph, Sawicki describes the confusion over the October session with the draft report of the Belgian MP Petra de Sutter, in which, if they were adopted, it would take a majority of votes to be taken by the Assembly in the future.. "However, in view of the political differences that became apparent during the debate on October 9, 2018. and after it became clear that the text would not achieve the necessary majority for adoption, the rapporteur requested the Assembly not to proceed with the adoption of the report, but to send it to the Committee for consideration of the text. This proposal to send the text back to the Committee was adopted by a clear majority of votes, "the author of the statement says. The project can be considered at the commission meeting on December 10 in Paris.. Savitsky cited the following historical fact: “For the past 70 years, the Assembly has shown extreme caution when considering the issue of authority and very reluctantly rejected them”. The General Secretary gave only two examples: this happened with respect to the delegations of Greece in 1969.. and Turkey in 1981.

"The deprivation of certain rights of national delegations only three times in the history of the Assembly - each time against the delegation of the Russian Federation (2000, 2014 and 2015)". It should also be recalled that parliamentarians from Cyprus were absent from PACE for 18 years from 1965 to 1983, Sawicki added. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia will not give the Council of Europe any joy to exclude it from the union, but it will leave.