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Georgia’s Window to Europe Closing
// Russia may prevent it from joining PACE
A split threatening the Council of Europe
Kommersant found out that the Georgian delegation, which calls on to deny Russia the vote at the Council of Europe, may be subjected to that sanction itself during the forthcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly. Interestingly, Russia won’t even have to send a corresponding application. Kommersant interlocutors in Strasbourg presume that the session will be accompanied by unprecedented scandals and may even foment the organization’s breakup.
Chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Mikhail Marguelov stated yesterday that Russia’s delegation to PACE hopes for a dialogue with their Georgian counterparts at the next session and does not intend to contest the Georgian delegation’s credentials. He cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said that Moscow is not going to follow the “tit for tat” principle and thus won’t urge to deprive Georgia’s representatives of the vote in PACE.
According to a source of Kommersant in Strasbourg, Russia’s decision to abstain from aggressive actions against the Georgian delegation can be explained by the fact that it is now too late to file an application of that kind, rather than the Russian’s delegation’s peaceable mood. In accordance with the Assembly’s organization and regulation order, a document demanding overhauling a delegation’s status is to be filed two weeks before the session starts, with at least 20 signatures of the Assembly’s members required.
That was the way a group of delegates headed by Estonia’s Kristiina Ojuland did. On September 12 they introduced a draft resolution calling on to punish Russia for “violation of the basic principles of the Council of Europe”. Apart from Ms Ojuland, the document was signed by 24 Assembly members from Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Finland, the Czech republic, Croatia, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and Monaco.
Vice-Speaker of Estonia’s Parliament Kristiina Ojuland told Kommersant that now PACE has as many grounds to deprive Russia of the vote as it had in 2002 as a precedent of imposing sanctions upon Russia was created. “It is not the first time that the question of overhauling Russia’s status in PACE is raised. However, last time it was because of the situation in Chechnya, which belongs to the Russian Federation. Now the situation is far graver, because it concerns attacking a sovereign state,” ms Ojuland added.
State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev told Kommersant that the Russian delegation considered different ways of reacting to the 24 Assembly members’ initiative, including filing a petition in response. But, according to Mr Kosachev, they decided that it is improper “to act like a monkey”. The head of the Russian delegation to PACE assured Kommersant that he personally considered the regulation that provides for depriving a member of the Assembly the vote wrong because “each country is represented by both governmental and opposition forces; so, they do not have to account for the actions of the state’s leadership”.
For all that, according a source of Kommersant in Strasbourg, there is another way to deny the Georgian delegation the vote – there is no need to write any petitions. The thing is in May Georgia held parliamentary elections, and a new delegation to PACE was formed as a result. It will come to Strasbourg for the first time, and, according to the regulations, the Assembly will confirm its credentials on the first day of the session. Article 8 of the PACE Charter reads that delegations’ credentials are confirmed automatically unless someone objects. To overhaul the status of a new delegation, ten Assembly members from five countries are to voice their protest.
State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev told Kommersant that the Russian delegation is aware of this norm, and added that he won’t defy the Georgian delegation. Although, in his view, the Georgian delegation deserves “far more serious punishment than the Russian one: it was Georgia that unleashed the war – Russia only stopped it”.
However, the interlocutors of Kommersant with PACE assumed that other states may come out with an initiative of that kind instead of Russia. “The Russian delegation, Mr Kosachev and his deputies personally – Mr Marguelov and Slutsky – have enough influence in Strasbourg and many supporters too,” a high-ranking European diplomat explained Kommersant. “They have already initiated draft resolutions on sensitive issues, using other Assembly members to do it. For example, Britain’s Conservatives have “defended” Russia’s interests. History may fairly repeat itself this time.”
Given this, the PACE Monitoring Committee will have 24 hours to prepare a report containing a recommendation to the assembly in general: whether to confirm the delegation’s credentials or not, or recognize it with limitations in its rights. However, from the viewpoint of the interlocutors of Kommersant, provided that Russia will hardly manage to initiate a procedure of that kind, it is unlikely that the majority of the PACE members will argue against Georgia when it comes to voting.
The prospects of this scenario much depend on the outlook for Kristiina Ojuland’s project, which suggests overhauling the Russia delegation’s status. Obviously, the number of those in favor of this approach is larger exceeds the number those who signed the petition – it was simply necessary to collect 20 signatures.
According to Mr Kosachev, the Estonia-Georgian initiative has been considered at the meetings of PACE’s governing bodies (the Presidential Committee, the Bureau as well as the Political, Legal Affairs, and Monitoring Committee), and “the majority of the participants objected to overhauling the Russian delegation’s credentials”. Mr Kosachev told Kommersant that he doesn’t believe that the initiative of the Group of 24, whom he called “agent provocateurs”, will be supported by PACE as a whole – “in case the Assembly takes its decisions guided by the “guilty or not” principle”, he added. “If they take decisions according to the “friend or foe” principle”, we would not like to belong to such an organization any longer,” he concluded.
According to Mr Kosachev, membership in the Council of Europe complies with Russia’s interests and Moscow does not want to deteriorate its relations with that organization. Nevertheless, in case PACE deprives Russia of the vote, it will mean that the Assembly is guided by the principles of another organization – NATO. “It won’t be the Council of Europe we once joined,” he summed it up.
A probable scandal at the future PACE session can easily result in the body’s split. If the majority of the delegates support changing the Russian delegation’s status, it can threaten with serious consequences to many of those Russians who applied to the European Court of Human Rights. Breaking off its relations with the Council of Europe, Russia will not be bound to cooperate with the European Court of Human Rights. Cooperation with this body has been hardly welcomed by Moscow in recent years. Moscow has been blocking the ECHR’s reform for a couple of years refusing to ratify Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights. Russians have brought more suits to the ECHR than any other nation, in particular, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev’s suits, as well as a number of suits related to the Chechen military campaign of 1999-2000.
At the same time the interlocutor of Kommersant with PACE warned that, threatening to quit the Council of Europe, Russia plays with fire. In his opinion, the Council of Europe has accumulated irritation with Russia, namely its promise to ratify Protocol 14 without actually fostering the matter. That is why, Russia’s temporary expulsion from the Council of Europe won’t be regarded as a tragedy – it will finally provide for reforming the ECHR allowing the Court to work effectively.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 19, 2008
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