Russia should be ready to leave the Council of Europe if a trilateral procedure is launched to respond to a violation of the charter with respect to Russia. This was announced on Monday, March 1, by the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma and the head of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to PACE, Pyotr Olegovich Tolstoy.
The corresponding statement was made by him during the round table “Twenty-five years of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe: cooperation or confrontation.” According to Tolstoy, Russia should “reconsider its role in this organization.” “We must be ready to leave it if the trilateral procedure is launched in relation to our country. I think we cannot tolerate this humiliating story, ”he stressed.
The parliamentarian also stated that there is very little ground for cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe. The themes that Russia proposes as unifying ones “are not supported there,” Tolstoy noted. “Until we have allies until we understand why we are in this organization, everything will be so: a confrontational approach, persecution of Russia on political issues absolutely, defamation and devilization of our country in the eyes of public opinion of all countries of the Council of Europe. It will not be otherwise. We have no allies,” TASS quoted him as saying .
When Russia leaves the Council of Europe, agreements with the organization will not cease to be part of the Russian legal system, Tolstoy added.
“This idea that we are there for the sake of conventions … is of great benefit to the departments. Everyone likes to travel on business. But for the sake of business trips of representatives of departments, I, for example, do not consider it possible to humiliate our country of this kind, which occurs there during all these discussions, ”concluded the vice-speaker of the State Duma.
