PACE Ratifies Full Rights for Russian Delegation

Following the reunification with Crimea in 2014, Russia was deprived of some certain rights within the assembly, which caused Moscow to suspend its participation, as well as its payments to the organization.

STRASBOURG (Sputnik) - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ratified full rights for the Russian delegation on Wednesday, in a 96-44 vote.

Seven people abstained.

Earlier in the day, the Monitoring Committee of PACE rejected most of the anti-Russia amendments to the resolution on extending the Russian delegation's authority, according to  Petr Tolstoy, the deputy chairman of the Russian lower house and the delegation's head.

On 28 January, Pyotr Tolstoy was elected a PACE vice-president.

The Russian delegation was stripped of its voting rights in April 2014 because of the situation in Ukraine and Crimea's reunification with Russia. In 2015, PACE twice considered restoring the delegation's rights, but nothing came of it. In response, from 2016 to 2018, Russia stopped renewing its credentials. 

Russia's delegation rights were fully restored in the summer of 2019.