Speaker of the lower chamber of Russian parliament Sergey Naryshkin has cancelled his visit to the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on October 1. He believes that his ideas on development of European parliament will be neglected, RIA Novosti reports.
Chairman of the Russian parliamentary committee for international affairs Alexey Pushkov will head the delegation to Strasbourg. Vyacheslav Fetisov, a member of the Federation Council, said that the delegation will remain unchanged.
The PACE will discuss a report on Russia’s obligations at the Council of Europe on October 2. The resolution project for Russia notes changes made since 2005, but it criticizes the Pussy Riot case and the Russian legal system.
MPs Gyorgy Frunda and Andreas Gross are preparing a new report on Russia. The document has many points of criticism towards Russia and recommends PACE monitoring, Interfax reports.
The PACE urges Russia to ratify protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (full ban of death penalties), investigate persecution of human rights activists, tortures and violence made by law enforcers, use of force against protesters.
Russia has blocked the final declaration on the right of young people at the ninth conference of ministers for youth affairs of the Council of Europe for the first time. Russia has not ratified the document, because European delegations had proposed the topic of sexual minorities as the key issue.
