"Dossier": PACE leadership is associated with Russian intelligence

The head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tini Cox, the several previous chairmen of the Assembly and the former general secretary were in the field of interests of Russian military intelligence (GRU). The election of coke for a post for several years was lobby for an employee of the GRU. This is stated in the investigation of the Dossier Center and EuobServer.

Cox is a senator from the Netherlands. He took the post of chairman at the end of January - for a month of Russian attack on Ukraine. Koksa was called a pro-Russian politician-in particular, he supported the return of powers for the Russian delegation and advocated its participation in PACE sessions in 2014, after Russia was deprived of the vote due to the annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the Donbass. According to the investigators, the idea of the election of Koks by the chairman of PACE was born in Moscow no later than the summer of 2017.

The previous chairman of PACA, Spaniard Pedro Agramunt, who visited Syria with the Russian delegation in 2017, was also on the network of Kremlin influence and then was forced to resign, his predecessor Netherlander Rene van der Linden, as well as the former Secretary General of the organization French Bruno Aller, writes “Dozier”.

The main coordinator of this network, as they say, was Valery Levitsky. He was the General Consul of Russia in Strasbourg. In April 2018, shortly after the attempt in the UK, the former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Levitsky was sent from France as an agent of GRU - for activities incompatible with the status of a diplomat. Now he works as a deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation of the State Duma. Levitsky, commenting on his expulsion, rejected involvement in intelligence.

“Dossier” writes that even before the annexation of Crimea, the Russian authorities were looking for ways not to execute the solutions of the ECHR - including in order not to pay compensation to the former shareholders of the Yukos. "As the documents show, another tool in this process was the Kremlin’s attempts to influence the policy of the Council of Europe from the inside - in particular, secretly recruiting the allies at the highest level, " the journalists say.

According to the investigators, in 2014, shortly after the introduction of restrictions on the powers of the Russian delegation, Levitsky compiled a "list of contacts of PACE", in which Cox was noted. It was Levitsky who was the first to come up with a COCS to the chairmen of PACA. This happened during a meeting with former Secretary General PACE Bruno Aller, who, obviously, also collaborated with the Russian side, the “Dozier” material said.

The most significant example of the role of Van der Linden, according to the investigators, may be Levitsky’s report in 2017. In it, the Russian outlined a plan for the salvation of Pedro Agramunt, who was in the center of the scandal due to a trip to Syria along with the Russian delegation.

According to Levitsky, in order to help agramunta to reach the end of the term, it is necessary to seek the interpretation of the Charter to the Venice Commission - an advisory body on constitutional law under the Council of Europe. Thus, the question of the removal of agramunt will drag on, and he will be able to stay longer in his post. According to Levitsky’s idea, Rene van der Linden had to bring this plan to Cox, and he - to achieve execution.

According to the "dossier", Cox in addition to working on the abolition of sanctions himself offered Russian politicians unofficial meetings. For example, in December 2017, he ensured that the delegation of Russian parliamentarians, including the current head of the LDPR Leonid Slutsky, was invited to a meeting of the presidential committee Pase in Paris.

PACE remains an ideal place for exploration and recruitment of sources. Parliamentarians of 46 countries gather here, which means that the influence achieved in PACE is easy to spread, the publication says.

The fact that Russia is excluded from the Council of Europe does not change this state of affairs, while the secret contacts of its key employees with the Kremlin and the GRU remains unprotected, concludes the “dossier”.

In a conversation with Euobserver, Tini Cox rejected his involvement in the Russian special services. Cox takes a tough position in relation to Moscow because of Ukraine. Pase under his leadership adopted a recommendation on the exclusion of Russia from the Council of Europe.

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