Russia will deprive the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of the funds provided for its work in the next year. And will not finance the organization until the rights of parliamentarians of the Russian Federation are fully restored. This was reported by the Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Petro Tolstoy.

"The final decision has not yet been taken, it is taken by the executive authorities. But in any case, if there are no changes in the regulations and the rights of Russian parliamentarians will not be fully restored, Moscow will not make contributions and, accordingly, will not return to PACE, "he told Izvestia..

The amount of the part of the contribution of Moscow to the Council of Europe, intended for financing the PACE, is about € 11 million.

However, changes in the organization's regulations before the end of this year, according to Russian diplomatic sources, are unlikely to happen.

By the decision of the minority of deputies, Russia was deprived of the opportunity to fully work in the PACE, Tolstoy reminded.. "Deprivation of the right to vote, that is, the right to speak in the PACE, is discrimination against the people of the largest European country," said the Vice-Speaker.

Russia is one of the five main contributors to the Council of Europe. The total amount of contributions to the organization is almost € 40 million.

These funds are allocated to the work of PACE, the Committee of Ministers, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, as well as the European Court of Human Rights.

After the reunification of the Crimea with Russia in 2014. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution condemning Moscow's actions, which it described as an annexation. And in early January 2015 PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the right to vote. Moscow in response has suspended its activities in the structure, and in June this year it froze a third of the contributions to the CE.