Ukraine boycotted the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in protest of Russia's return to the panel. No one of the Ukrainian delegation attended the plenary session, said the deputy Alexei Goncharenko the news agency DPA.
According to Goncharenko, only four of the twelve delegation members traveled to Strasbourg, where they would participate only in informal work and consultations with colleagues. The return of Russia contradicts the principles of the Council of Europe.
In addition, the delegation had not yet accepted their credentials for the assembly, said delegation chief Jelisaveta Jasko in an interview before the meeting. MEPs were elected to the Ukraine at the end of July and therefore still have to submit their letters to the Council of Europe Assembly. If they did, they would recognize part of the unfair process of Moscow's return, Jasko said. A new dialogue is necessary.
Russia had recently regained all rights as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The punitive measures were a reaction to the Russian annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and to Moscow's support of the pro-Russian separatists in the war zone of eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian MPs left the plenary session in protest.
Council of Europe wants to deal with protests in Moscow
The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, was founded in 1949. Its mission is to monitor human rights and the rule of law in its 47 member states - including countries such as Turkey, Russia and Ukraine. States may be held accountable before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of Europe is not an institution of the European Union.
After the mass protests of the Russian opposition, the Council of Europe wants to deal with the issue despite opposition from the Kremlin on Thursday. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rewrote its agenda item entitled "Violation of democratic rights and repression of peaceful protests in Russia in the context of elections to the Moscow City Council".
The Kremlin reacted disgruntled. "We do not like it, when somewhere on the internal affairs of Russia is discussed," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday, the agency Interfax. "That's our business."
The protests in Moscow were directed against the exclusion of dozens of oppositionists from the city council election in early September. Thousands of people were temporarily arrested. Although most were released after a short time, several were sentenced to prison terms. This had caused criticism internationally and also in Russia.
