Russia Could Return to PACE in January if 'Discriminatory Mechanism' Abolished

The abolition of the currently operational discriminatory mechanism within PACE is a precondition for Moscow's return to the organization, a senior Russian lawmaker said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia could return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) next January if no member states are stripped of voting rights, senior Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said Wednesday.

"If there is no longer a discriminatory mechanism of depriving a national delegation of voting rights, it is very likely we may come back in January" Slutsky, a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for parliamentary international affairs committee chairmanship, said.

Another senior lawmaker Alexei Pushkov forecast last month that the lower house of Russian parliament would deliberate the return to PACE in mid-December.

Russian lawmakers have been absent from PACE, which brings together 324 members of parliaments of the Council's 47 member states, since Crimea left Ukraine for Russia in early 2014.

The assembly adopted a resolution in April 2014 barring Russian lawmakers from participating in the work of its three key bodies – the Bureau, the Presidential Committee and the Standing Committee.

Russia did not renew its credentials ahead of the Assembly’s 2016 winter session and made its return conditional on the full restoration of its delegates' voting rights.