Russian Senator Mikhail Margelov is ready to take over PACE presidency.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Russian May Take Over PACE Presidency
A session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly finished in Strasbourg on Friday to become the last one for PACE head Rene vad der Linden. The next session on January is to elect a new president. Russian Senator Mikhail Margelov is considered an odds-on favorite. Reports appeared on Friday what the PACE is going to tackle under the new chairman. The European Democrat Group led by Mr. Margelov called for a report to investigate the mysterious death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. Kommersant special correspondent Mikhail Zygar reports from Strasbourg.
The Russian delegation had a lot of plans for this PACE session. Apart from the visit of Patriarch Alexiy II, all eyes were on the discussion of the U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe. Russian lawmakers were going to rebuff America’s plans to deploy a radar station in the Czech Republic and intercept missile in Poland. However, the PACE’s bureau on the first day voted to take the issue off the agenda as it has no direct relation to human rights that the PACE prefers to focus on.
The Russian delegation did not want to leave without fight. Russia’s Konstantin Kochachev took the floor during the discussion of the concept of preventive war. He missed previous discussions in Strasbourg as he attended the United Russia party’s session and could not react to the bureau’s decision earlier. Commenting on Lluis Maria de Puig report which said that preventive wars must be carried out at least without sanctions of the UN Security Council, Mr. Kosachev lamented that the draft does not condemn countries which “follow the principles of preventive war such as the United States and NATO members”. Konstantin Kosachev reminded of “tremendous mistakes of the United Sates and its allies in the anti-Iraq operation” as well as the possibility of an operation against Iran and called on NATO lawmakers to discuss the issue, condemn the United States and hold a four-party parliamentary conference in Moscow with Poland, the Czech Republic, the United States and Russia to discuss America’s plans to deploy elements of its anti-missile shield in Europe.
Fellow lawmakers gave no reaction. Konstantin Kosachev told reporters later that it was not by chance that the anti-missile issue was taken off the agenda. “It was not without the United States’ interference as it really didn’t want the issue to be discussed at the PACE,” he said.
The closing of the session was quite touching. Duma deputy Vera Oskina from United Russia spoke about domestic violence, called on fellow male deputies to fight for women’s rights and went on to a topic somewhat more immediate for her. “Russia holds the election on December 2,” she said. “On the behalf of many deputies I would like to thank you for the invaluable experience we had got here,” the deputy was virtually ready to break into tears.
Ms. Oskina was made number nine in the party list in Krasnoyarsk, which means she does not stand much chance to win a set in the Duma and go to Strasbourg again. But she invited all PACE members to come over to Krasnoyarsk. The lawmakers were obviously touched, gave Ms. Oskina a hearty applause and continued to discuss domestic violence.
However, this session is not the last for all members of the Russian delegation. The session could be in fact the last one for Mikhail Margelov, head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, in the capacity of an ordinary deputy. In January he could be elected PACE President, which means he will run the whole assembly, prepare the agenda and coordinate relations with other organizations. The election of the PACE president is based on the rotation principle. Leaders of all four factions are appointed in turns. Now it is the turn for European Democrats. Mikhail Margelov was wise enough last year to decline to take the chair of the PACE’s vice-president and head of the Russian delegation but headed this faction instead.
Debates are heated among PACE delegates whether Russia will be prejudiced on the PACE’s key issues. French Socialist Josette Durrieu expressed her deepest worries saying that the PACE cannot have at its helm a representative of the country which fails to meet its obligations. However, if Mr. Margelov is not elected, it will bring a scandal, too, since the long-standing tradition of the PACE will be violated.
The PACE’s Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg noted in an interview with Kommersant that similar disputes were in the air last year when Russia was to head the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the same rotation principle. Despite violent protests, Russia took the chair and nothing extraordinary happened. “You can’t mix the country and the person who represents it,” the commissioner said. “If we start carry over the relation towards the state onto all its representatives, we may bar the way for many worthy people.”
However, sources at the PACE say that the election of Mr. Margelov still depends on the situation in Russia. “If something happens in Russia that will badly damage its image such as rigged elections or President Putin abolishing the Constitution, Margelov’s chances will suffer,” a PACE deputy told Kommersant.
Still, Mikhail Margelov and his colleagues have already launched preparations for the next session. The European Democrat Group on Friday suggested drafting a report on the death of Georgian Zurab Zhvania. The group said in a recommendation letter: “We are concerned about accusations of the former defense minister and opposition leader Mikhail Okruashvili who said that Zurab Zhvania died not in the apartment where he was found but in another place and his body was later taken to that address.” The recommendations seem to have been drafted in a real haste as the report is to be heard in January.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 06, 2007
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