"I always was against depriving the Russian delegation of their rights and I wanted them to be within the council of Europe. I see the council of Europe as an organization of the people often against the states. By excluding the Russian delegation we are depriving the Russian population of access to this organization," Jonasson, who is the chairman of the constitutional and supervisory committee at the Althinghi (the Icelandic parliament) said.
Jonasson added that the Council of Europe should not behave like a "mini-NATO" or "mini-European Union."
"We are the council of Europe, we are the guardians of human rights in Europe and we should all be here," the parliamentarian added.
In the light of Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014, the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and the West accusing Moscow of alleged meddling in Ukrainian affairs, PACE adopted several resolutions limiting the rights of the Russian delegation in the Assembly.
For instance, on January 28, PACE adopted a document stripping the Russian delegation of its voting rights and the right to participate in the Assembly's governing bodies at the April session, currently underway in Strasbourg.
On Monday, the first day of the current session, the head of the PACE monitoring committee told Sputnik that the Russian delegation's rights are unlikely to be restored.
