Council of Europe backs Russia's return
Ukraine reacts with fury to the move.
A view of European flags floating in front of the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images
By Ya Chun Wang
June 25, 2019	12:23 pm
The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) agreed Tuesday to allow Russian representatives to return to the body, five years after Moscow was stripped of its voting rights over the annexation of Crimea.
Russia threatened to quit PACE if it was barred from voting in Wednesday's election of a new secretary-general to replace Norway's Thorbjørn Jagland. Exiting the Council of Europe would have meant Russians losing access to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Council of Europe said in a statement Tuesday that the assembly affirmed its members' rights "to vote, to speak and to be represented in the assembly and its bodies," which "shall not be suspended or withdrawn in the context of a challenge to or reconsideration of credentials."
Ukraine reacted with fury to the move.
On Monday ahead of the vote, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's ambassador to the human rights body, said a green light to Moscow's return "would be the unilateral surrender of the Council of Europe to Russian demands."
Maria Ionova, the acting chairperson of Ukraine's parliamentary committee for European integration, told Interfax-Ukraine: "In principle, we do not see ourselves in the same room with the Russians. We will simply suspend Ukraine's participation in the summer session … I do not know whether it will be possible to return there."
The assembly voted 118 in favor of readmitting Russia and 62 against, with 10 abstentions.
France and Germany had been pushing for Russia to be allowed to return.
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Human rights	Rights
Germany	Russia	Ukraine
Heiko Maas	Thorbjørn Jagland