Relations between Russia and the Council of Europe, which have been souring for a long time, became aggravated in 2014 and 2015, when Russian MEPs were stripped of certain rights at the Parliamentary Assembly over Crimea. Moscow refused to take part in PACE sessions because working in such conditions is impossible. The confrontation grew worse in late June 2017. Moscow suspended its contribution to the Council of Europe until the Russian delegation’s rights are fully restored. However, Russia continued working to ratify the council’s conventions.
“We are talking now about a crisis of confidence in democracy [at the Council of Europe – Ed.], which can only be overcome with reliance on the local and regional authorities. I have said today that the regional authorities and local self-government are the basis of democracy and that no system of governance is effective without feedback and input from the people. There will be no normal dialogue until PACE accepts this,” said Drozdenko, who is leading the Russian delegation at the council’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRA), which has met for its 36th Session in Strasbourg, France.
According to Drozdenko, PACE must not be the only governing body at the Council of Europe. “I believe that all the arising matters should be settled through an equitable dialogue,” he told Sputnik during a telephone interview.
The Russian representative expressed confidence that the voice of the Russian delegation must be heard at PACE. “Everyone knows that the decision to strip Russia of two fundamental rights – to elect and be elected – amounts to a flagrant violation of the democratic principles. It is understandable why Russia is not making its financial contributions to the Council of Europe,” Drozdenko said.
“During the debates today, nearly all speakers, including Roberto Fasino, one of the longest serving representatives at the Council of Europe and head of the Secretariat of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, as well as the German delegation said that Russia must be reinstated at PACE. I hope a solution to this problem will be found through a dialogue between the CLRA and PACE. We have great hopes for the upcoming meeting of the CoE foreign ministers in Helsinki in May,” Drozdenko said.
The Russian MEP said that a meeting with the senior executives of the CoE and PACE was scheduled for Thursday. “I will use the right to speak to ask uncomfortable questions,” he said.
The Russian governor added that he would ask about Crimea. “Who do they [PACE – Ed.] want to punish? Russia, or the people of Crimea? What we are seeing now is a double punishment: the sanctions against Russia, plus the punishment of the residents of Crimea who showed their will to vote for reunification with Russia. And now they are denied Schengen visas because of this,” Drozdenko pointed out.
