PACE accepts Russian delegation without any sanctions

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) approved a resolution on Jan. 28 to confirm the authority of the Russian
delegation, accepting it into its ranks without imposing restrictive sanctions,
as had been sought by the Ukrainian delegation. The resolution was approved by
107 votes (out of 167 total) in the draft that was most favorable to Russia,
reported the eurointegration.com.ua news site. Earlier that day, the PACE
monitoring committee rejected all Ukrainian amendments to the resolution. The
PACE session rejected Ukraine’s amendment to reject the authority of the
Russian delegation altogether.

At the same time, the PACE resolution acknowledges
that Russia failed to uphold Council of Europe obligations on a series of
issues, including those surrounding Aleksei Navalny. Yet the resolution
proposes applying no sanctions against Russia, owing to “a striving for
dialogue.” In response to the resolution, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro
Kuleba tweeted that “this PACE was broken long ago. A new one has yet to be
brought in.”

Zenon Zawada: The
Ukrainians can criticize PACE all they want, but the fact remains that the
Russians won this front in their hybrid war. It has been our position that
Russian President Putin expected this outcome, understanding that Europe and
its restless, comfortable populations don’t have the patience to withstand
Russia’s stubborn authoritarian approach to most conflicts. Moreover, Putin
doesn’t need to deal with the complications of democracy such as EU nations do,
such as having to respond to business concerns of lost trade (as well as lost
membership dues to PACE). Of course, all is not lost considering PACE continues
to condemn the illegal Crimea annexation and Russian aggression in Donbas.

However, the Russian delegation returning to PACE
in complete form is not nearly as dangerous as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Ukraine losing that front in the hybrid war would be the more devastating blow
that would seriously threaten Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions. Russia is so
close to completing the pipeline that it’s hard to imagine additional
sanctions, so late in the process, being able to stop it. Ukraine’s
Euro-Atlantic prospects are as much under threat now as they were in 2013. Much
fault lies with President Zelensky and the power vacuum that he has created
with his passive leadership (being dressed up as tolerance and fairness).