Members of Delegations of Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have issued a statement on joint action following PACE's decision to allow Russia to return to the chamber.
The statement was made public after PACE voted to restore the Russian delegation's rights in full, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, MP Leonid Yemets, has said on Facebook.
He shared the following text of the statement:
"The unconditional restoration of the Russian Delegation’s rights without the Russian Federation honouring any of the Assembly’s numerous demands runs counter to the core values of the Council of Europe and its Statute. This step sends a very wrong signal to the country that has resorted to armed aggression, poisoning of individuals, does not observe human rights of its citizens and does not promote but seeks to destabilise democracies throughout Europe.
Today, we as the delegates of our nations have no answer to our people how exactly the CoE is protecting their rights if it comes across as more interested in protecting the well-being of an aggressor than the victims of aggression and repression.
The future of the CoE is under threat as a whole because the CoE is losing the trust of the people it stands to protect.
We return home to consult our Parliaments and Governments about the joint actions in the Assembly in the next sessions.
We wish good luck to the newly elected Secretary General and hope she/he finds a way to solve this unprecedented crises of trust which was created this week."