MOSCOW, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - PACE's monitoring committee failed to back a Georgian proposal to deprive Russia of the right to vote at the September session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a senior legislator said on Wednesday.
Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the Russian delegation, told RIA Novosti on the phone: "The most radical proposal introduced with the idea of depriving the Russian delegation of its powers did not go through."
Georgia has been repeatedly seeking to deprive Russia of its PACE vote since last August, when both countries were involved in a brief war over former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia recognized as independent.
Russia launched its five-day military operation to "force Georgia to accept peace" after Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia on August 8, killing a number of Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of civilians.
