Lavrov Says NATO Expansion, Discrimination Against Russians In PACE 'Links In One Chain'

Faizan Hashmi Published February 16, 2019 | 08:01 PM

Expansion of NATO and discrimination against Russian representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are all "links in the same chain," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday

MUNICH (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2019) Expansion of NATO and discrimination against Russian representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are all "links in the same chain," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

He said that the need to unite the potentials of all European states without exception was recognized by many outstanding politicians, but as of today, the choice was made in favor of "NATO-centricity" and its logic of "the leading and the led."

"The illegitimate bombing of Yugoslavia, its dismemberment and unilateral recognition of Kosovo's independence, which for the first time after World War II changed borders on the continent, the support for the armed coup in Kiev, NATO expansion and deployment of US missile defenses in Europe, the EU's refusal to take the decision already agreed by Moscow and Brussels on the mutual abolition of the visa regime, discrimination of Russian representatives in PACE - all of these are links in one chain," Lavrov said at the Munich Security Conference.

PACE stripped the Russian delegation of its voting rights and ability to participate in the work of its three key bodies in 2014 amid the crisis in Ukraine 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 the attitude it faces within the organization.

In June 2017, Moscow froze part of its Council of Europe contribution meant for Russia's PACE membership for 2018.

The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, adopted a decision in January not to send a parliamentary delegation to the PACE in 2019 and not to pay contributions to the budget of the Council of Europe during the same period.