Russia will pay only one-third of its contribution to PACE in 2016

Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin told reporters on January 18 that Russia will pay only one-third of its contribution to PACE.

He said Moscow categorically disagrees with the decision to strip the Russian delegation of a range of its competences at the Council of Europe. “We are deeply convinced that those decisions were based on a biased attitude to the Ukrainian crisis.” Russia will be closely following the development of the situation and will file for participation in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly in case of better conditions.

EADaily reported earlier that the Russian delegation will not attend the upcoming Winter Session of PACE. “A letter signed by the speakers of the Russian parliament’s both houses has been sent to PACE President Anne Brasseur to inform that a request on the Russian delegation’s competences in 2016 will be submitted later. We will skip the January session," said Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Duma Committee for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots.

PACE Winter Session will be held in Strasbourg on January 25-29, 2016. January 15 was deadline for the national delegation to submit the lists of their participants. The Russian delegation has submitted no lists.