PACE not deprives Russian delegation of right to vote

France, Strasbourg, Oct.1 / Trend , A. Maharramli /

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has not supported Georgia's initiative to deprive the Russian delegation to the Assembly of the right to vote.

Andreas Gross was elected a rapporteur on the issue of depriving Russia of the right to vote in the PACE.

The Georgian delegation to PACE submitted this proposal for consideration a few weeks ago, and it was supported by 72 parliamentarians.

Initially it was assumed that the powers of the Russian delegation will be considered on Wednesday, but on the first day of the Assembly, its constitutional authority - the Bureau - decided to postpone the discussion on Thursday.

On the same day, the PACE President Luis Maria de Puig has asked the monitoring committee to devise an opinion on the initiative within 24-hour, ITAR-TASS reported.

On Tuesday it became known that the committee recommended the Assembly reaffirm the credentials of the Russian delegation.

The Head of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Kosachev said that the postponement of the date of the discussion on depriving Russia of the right to vote in the PACE makes it more unpredictable.

Kosachev noted that there are positive milestone in the postponement of the discussions. One of them is the fact that the day before, on Sept. 30, the EU report on the events in August 2009 in the Caucasus was submitted.