Strasbourg has accepted the position of Russian parliamentarians but has taken a decision against the settlement of a dispute between Russia and EU.

The Russian delegation did not provide necessary documents for participation in the winter session of PACE. Therefore Russia is not going to attend PACE session during 2016, according to the statement of the head of PACE Anne Brasseur.

Such a situation has regreted Strasbourg. The result of the decision taken by PACE means that the Russian delegation will not participate in the work of the Assembly during 2016, or at least until new parliamentary elections in Russia are carried out next September.

18 January, the State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin announced that Russia would not apply for participation in the winter session of the Assembly in Strasbourg.  According to him, Russian parliamentarians “have carefully analyzed the situation in PACE, the discussions, the position of the delegation” and they disagree with the decisions of the Assembly that were taken previously.

“The Russian delegation was deprived of a number of significant powers. That prevents us to implement our parliamentary functions. We are deeply convinced that these decisions were taken on the basis of prejudice against the events in the Ukrainian crisis,” Sergey Naryshkin said.