MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) should not be able to deprive national delegations of their rights, Russian parliament speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Wednesday.
"The possibility of depriving any national delegation of its powers should be removed from the Parliamentary Assembly's practice. PACE should not have a mandate to recognize or not recognize or limit the rights of national delegations," Naryshkin said at a meeting with PACE President Pedro Agramunt.
The Russian delegation was deprived of its voting rights in April 2014 following Crimea's reunification with Russia. Russian lawmakers were barred from participating in PACE's three key bodies — its bureau, presidential committee and standing committee.
