Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said that individual member states of the Council of Europe are ready to bring the Russian delegation back to the PACE without obliging it to fulfil any conditions. In his opinion, this will launch the process of “normalising” everything that Russia has committed.
"A precedent of Russia’s return to the PACE will have significant symbolic consequences - it starts the process of 'normalising' everything that the Russian Federation has dared to commit without taking steps towards normality on its part. And those who make such a distorted global reality must share some responsibility for this," Klimkin said on Facebook, commenting on his negotiations in Brussels.
He added that Ukraine would not act in a politically correct manner any longer.
"If some people in Europe give in to the Kremlin’s blackmail and hide their heads in the sand, there can be nothing left of the Council of Europe and, in the end, of all European values very soon," he added.
He added that for Ukraine, the return of Russia to the PACE would finally undermine the Minsk agreements.
Since 2014, the Russian delegation to the PACE has been deprived of its basic powers. At a meeting on 9 October 2018, just like in 2017, the PACE did not restore Russia's voting right and postponed this issue until 2019.