Russia Could Leave PACE In Light Of Recent Anti-Russia Events - Senior Lawmaker

Russia Could Leave PACE In Light of Recent Anti-Russia Events - Senior Lawmaker

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2021) Russia could soon withdraw from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) amid the hostile western stance, particularly in what concerns opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the international affairs committee of the Russian State Duma, said.

"We can talk about a possible withdrawal from the Council of Europe, from its Parliamentary Assembly. You can only withdraw from the Council of Europe as a whole. I think that the Russian leadership will take ... an adequate decision, corresponding to the fact that ... the Council of Europe, and first of all PACE, is used ... to inflict all sorts of attacks on Russia," Slutsky said on the Soloviev Live YouTube show.

He added that within the next few days, a harsh anti-Russian resolution was going to be adopted in relation to the Navalny case.

On Friday, a spokesperson of the European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European parliament, told Sputnik that there were calls for new EU sanctions against Russia amid a similar decision made by the US.

Earlier this week, Pyotr Tolstoy, the deputy chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, said that Russia was going to participate in the PACE spring session remotely, but could refuse to work at the PACE platform altogether if the rights of the country's delegation are violated.