MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) — The Russian delegation is ready to return to full-fledged work in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2015 despite existing disagreements, Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, said Wednesday.
"Our delegation is ready to return to the full-format work at PACE in January 2015, because the values of democracy and law, parliamentarianism and collaborative dialogue mean something to us. Hopefully, those things mean something to the majority of the PACE members too," Naryshkin was quoted as saying by Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
According to the speaker, even though there are still significant differences in the assessment of the Ukrainian crisis, the understanding of the need to have a dialogue is growing stronger in PACE. He also said that more and more PACE parliamentarians are realizing that without the participation of Russia the assembly's capacity is much lower.
The Russian parliamentarian added that "the facts concerning the events in southeastern Ukraine which we have presented are having an effect."
PACE has a chance to be one of the key organizations that could help Europe overcome its credibility crisis, Naryshkin stressed.
Last week, it was reported that according to Andreas Gross, the head of PACE's observer mission to Russia, Russian deputies and PACE members had agreed to meet in Vienna in December to discuss the restoration of the Russian delegation's voting rights in the assembly that were suspended in April.
The suspension followed Crimea's reunification with Russia in March. Protesting the suspension, the Russian delegation walked out of the assembly's spring session and decided not to participate in its summer session. The rights of each delegation are renewed annually.
