The continent about the peninsula

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution with condemnation of Russia's actions on the annexation of Crimea,according to the PACE website. The document is entitled "Development of the latest events in Ukraine: a threat to the functioning of democratic institutions." For the adoption of the resolution, 154 votes were presented, 26 - against and 14 abstained.

"The Assembly decisively condemns Russian military aggression and the subsequent annexation of Crimea, which is a clear violation of international law, including the provisions of the United Nations Charter, the OSCE Helsinki act and the main norms of the European Council. None of the arguments that the Russian Federation resorts to justify its actions," the resolution says.

The Assembly believes that the department of Crimea was initiated and provoked by the Russian authorities under the guise of military intervention. PACE also expresses fears about the Russian military presence on the border with Ukraine. In this regard, the Assembly recommends that the states signed the Budapest Memorandum conclude real security agreements to ensure sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The Assembly fully recognized the legality of their decisions of the new government in Kyiv and the Verkhovna Rada. The resolution expresses regret about attempts to question the legitimacy of the new government, "which can only destabilize the situation in the country."

The document notes that Ukraine should carry out constitutional reform, the decentralization of power with the delegation of significant powers to local communities, but with a strong unitary state. The PACE resolution condemned the proposals of Russia for the federalization of Ukraine, since this "would lead to a significant weakening of the unity and stability of the country."

The resolution is based on a report prepared by the co-packers of the Monitoring Committee PACE Milis Reps (Estonia) and Marietta de Purbe Lundin (Sweden).

Representatives of Russia made maximum efforts to prevent the adoption of the resolution in its original form. “Ten million Russian and Russian -speaking citizens in Ukraine require federalization. Therefore, it is not true that no one in Ukraine requires federalization,” said Alexei Pushkov, head of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee.

On Thursday, at the PACE session, it is supposed to discuss projects of resolution regarding the powers of Russia in the Assembly in connection with the situation in Ukraine. Two draft document projects have already been registered for today. Each signed over 50 deputies, which, in accordance with the PACE Rules, allows them to consider them at sessions.

The first document was made by Briton Robert Walter. His project proposes to "unconditionally condemn the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine" and deprive the Russian delegation of powers.

The second project prepared by Dange Michael Ostruop Jensen provides for the "suspension of the right of vote of the Russian delegation." Such a measure was already applied against Russia in 2000 in connection with the Second Chechen War. Similarly, they offered to punish Russia in 2009 after the war with Georgia, but then this idea was not supported.

In response, the State Duma in 446 votes accepted a statement in which she regarded the idea of ​​depriving the Russian delegation of authority in PACE as a "destructive step".

During the discussion, the communist Tamara Pletnev invited Russia to leave Pase herself. This initiative of Pushkov. “If we ourselves add up to the authority, then our opponents will have nothing to vote for,” the meaning of such a decision explained Unicoros. He added that the delegation will take this step if PACE will be inclined to strict sanctions against Russia. Membership in the Assembly will suspend the country at least until the end of the year, Pushkov said.