PACE to Discuss Credentials of Russia's Delegation Wednesday

According to PACE President Brasseur, the parliamentary assembly is set to discuss the credentials of the Russian delegation Wednesday.

STRASBOURG, January 26 (Sputnik) – The Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) will review Russia’s credentials on Wednesday, PACE President Anne Brasseur said Monday.

"Wednesday late afternoon we are going to have a debate… about the credentials of the Russian delegation," Brasseur said adding that the decision of depriving Moscow of its voting rights in PACE has expired.

The PACE president said that that the debate regarding Russia’s reinstatement with the council must wait until the appointment of a rapporteur.

Brasseur added that the assembly would hold a debate of the Ukrainian crisis this week.

She noted that the situation in Ukraine had dramatically worsened.

"We have a report in the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Ukraine," the PACE president said.

She noted that the presidential committee went to Moscow and to Kiev, trying to talk to both Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

PACE suspended Moscow's voting rights following the reunification of Crimea and Russia in March 2014. In protest, the Russian delegation walked out of the assembly’s spring session and did not attend the summer session.

On Thursday, the chairman of Russia’s lower parliamentary house, Sergei Naryshkin, said that Russia might suspend its work in PACE and even reconsider its membership in the Council of Europe, should the Russian delegation continue to be deprived of voting rights.

PACE, established in 1949, oversees the European Court of Human Rights. The parliamentary council’s mission is to uphold democracy, rule of law and human rights among the Council of Europe’s 47 member states.