The monitoring commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) failed to make a decision on ‘freezing’ talks on the
Russian-Georgian issue, with the votes split into two groups, RIA
Novosti reports, citing the first deputy chairman of the international
committee of the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky.
The Russian-Georgian issue has been discussed at almost every session
of PACE since October 2008, after the military conflict in South
Ossetia.
The issue received 16 votes for and 16 against, and will be
reconsidered in the autumn, Slutsky said. He added that the Georgian
delegation left the talks as a sign of protest.
The Assembly is to decide whether they will appoint a new rapporteur
on Russian-Georgian monitoring or to establish a new file, or they can
send the file to a ‘country-study file’, monitoring the obligations of
countries to the Council of Europe.
