PACE extends sanctions depriving Russian members of voting rights

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved a resolution and amendments on Jan. 28 that included extending sanctions that deprive its Russian members their voting rights until an April review. “That’s the amendment to the resolution for which the main war was fought during the entire winter session,” Ukrainian MP Svitlana Zalishchuk reported on her Facebook page. “Also Russia didn’t regain the right to participate in the governing bodies of the Council of Europe.” Should Russia “not demonstrate tangible progress,” its members could face being deprived of their votes until the year end or removed altogether, she wrote.

The measure drew 160 votes in favor and 42 against. Russian members are also deprived of participating in election observing missions, serving as rapporteurs, and being appointed as PACE representatives until the end of 2015. The resolution calls for an assessment at the next session’s opening of what Russia has done to de-escalate the conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia and Prydnistrovia region in Moldova, including removing its soldiers from these regions.

The resolution calls for the Russian government to arrange for the release of Ukrainian war prisoner Nadiya Savchenko during the next 24 hours to the Ukrainian government or a third party, Zalishchuk reported. It condemns Russia’s role in instigating and escalating the military conflict in eastern Ukraine, including supplying arms to separatist fighters and concealing the involvement of Russian armies. It condemned Russia’s role in the Mariupol attack on civilians on Jan. 24 that killed 31 and injured more than a hundred. The resolution cites Russia’s failure to uphold the Minsk ceasefire accords and calls for its government to uphold them, including removing Russian soldiers from Ukrainian territory. It calls upon Russia to cancel the annexation of Crimea and cease the ethnic persecution of Crimean Tatars.

Most of the approved amendments were approved at a “very heated” meeting of the monitoring committee that day, Zalishchuk told Concorde Capital. Just a day earlier, the same committee approved a draft resolution removing the sanctions on Russia, granting its members the right to vote at Assembly sessions, participate in governing PACE bodies and the right to vote in the sessions of the leading committees. Yet Ukrainian diplomats were able to sway the committee towards supporting amendments reflecting an opposite position, Zalishchuk said, crediting the success to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Parliamentary Head Volodymyr Hroisman and her fellow PACE delegates from the Ukrainian parliament.

In response to the Jan. 28 PACE vote to extend sanctions, the Russian delegation will cease its participation in PACE, as well as any contact, until the year end, Aleskei Pushkov, the head of the Russian Duma foreign affairs committee, told reporters afterwards in Strasbourg, as reported by the Yevropeyska Pravda news site. “Under such conditions, there’s no discussion on any visits by PACE representatives, PACE monitors or contact by PACE representatives with Ms. Savchenko,” he said. The Russian government is seriously considering leaving the Council of Europe and ceasing its participation in the European Human Rights Convention and other Council of Europe institutions. “I wish to stress that Russia had never considered such a possibility,” Pushkov said. “Today’s PACE decision puts this issue on the daily agenda.”

Zenon Zawada: The PACE resolution comes as a relief after its monitoring committee approved the previous day measures to remove sanctions on Russia. It’s an impressive victory for Ukrainian diplomacy to gain such a swift reversal not only in the committee, but then a favorable vote in the assembly. Removing the sanctions would have been a disastrous decision and an exceptional sign of weakness, particularly after the weekend’s vicious terrorist attacks on civilians in Mariupol.

Russian diplomat Pushkov warned that no one gains from Russia’s exclusion from PACE, neither Europe nor Ukraine. Yet for nearly a year, it has been the Russian government’s conscious decision to choose waging war in Ukraine over peace. There’s no constructive role for a government intent on waging war in an international structure committed to peace and human rights.