Europe Not Anymore Willing To Yield To Russophobic Caprice - Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2019) Respectable European countries have realized that Russophobic policies are counterproductive and they do not want to yield to caprice of the Russophobic minority, which manifested itself in the recent Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) decision on Russian parliamentarians, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview with RBC, released on Thursday, Lavrov said that Russophobes were a minority in the European Union, noting that up until now, they had been defining the bloc's and NATO policies toward Russia by abusing the principles of solidarity and consensus. Notably, on Monday, the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure adopted a draft resolution that proposed inviting the Russian delegation, which was stripped of its voting rights over the 2014 Ukraine crisis, to participate in the June session.

"Now, respectable European countries have realized that this policy is counterproductive. They do not want to give in to caprice emerging among the Russophobic minority.

This showed itself in the decisions which have recently been made by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe; and [the decisions made] over the past days by the structures of the Parliamentary Assembly, which are aimed at stopping the discrimination of Russian parliamentarians," Lavrov said in the interview.

The PACE draft, adopted on Monday, also suggested that there should not be a possibility to take away or suspend delegations' rights to vote or speak out within the assembly.

In April 2014, Russia was stripped of its voting rights in PACE in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea's reunification with Russia. Since 2016, the Russian delegation has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions in protest of discrimination it faces within the organization.

The country also froze its contributions to the Council of Europe, saying they would not be paid until the Russian delegation's rights in the PACE were restored.