Russia to Resume Cooperation With PACE Only on Equal Footing

Moscow has not stopped cooperating with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) indefinitely but future cooperation will only be resumed after the working conditions have been made equal for all delegations, a senior Russian lawmaker said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — "We have stopped our cooperation [with PACE], but it does not mean that we have stopped the cooperation forever. We will resume our full cooperation once it becomes completely equal, as the Council of Europe charter requires," Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, said.

In January, Naryshkin said that Russia would not participate in the upcoming winter PACE session and would not present its credentials for renewal, but would continue its cooperation with the Council of Europe.

In April 2014, following Crimea’s incorporation into Russia, PACE banned the Moscow delegation from voting and participating in the work of PACE's governing bodies until the end of 2014. In 2015, the ban was extended.