Russian senators have resumed work at the PACE winter session.
The first part of the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has opened in Strasbourg.
First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs and head of senators at the Russian delegation in PACE Sergei Kislyak has announced that senators Vyacheslav Timchenko, Vladimir Kozhin, Irina Rukavishnikova, Alexander Bashkin, Vladimir Krugly and Oleg Tsepkin have started working at the PACE winter session and have taken part in the first meeting via videoconference.
Tiny Kox (Netherlands) has been elected President of the PACE.
Sergei Kislyak noted that the session had begun with a traditional effort to question the credentials of the Russian delegation. He added that this was evidence of the unwillingness of some delegations to conduct a balanced and comprehensive dialogue. “For our part, we are open to cooperation and interaction. At the same time, any restrictions on the rights of the Russian delegation at the PACE are unacceptable,” he said.