President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Rene van der Linden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, January 17, 2008.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
PACE Trades Saakashvili for Margelov
Outgoing President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Rene van der Linden paid a farewell visit to Moscow yesterday. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and reached an agreement with him that Russia will not make a scandal over PACE's decision to withdraw its invitation to Russian representative Mikhail Margelov to succeed him in the organization's presidency. Margelov, as the leader of the democratic fact in the PACE, was slated to become president by rotation. In exchange, the PACE has also withdrawn its invitation to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to attend its next session.
Van der Linden also reminded the Russian president that Russia's refusal to ratify the 14th protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights is practically paralyzing the European Court of Human Rights. Putin did not promise to remedy the situation. At the last PACE session, several delegates objected to allowing Margelov to become assembly president while Russia continues to hamper the organization's functioning, such as by refusing to ratify the 6th and 14th protocols to the human rights convention. Therefore Spanish socialist Luis Maria de Puig will become the next president of the assembly. The democrats will have the opportunity to advance their presidential candidate again in 2010.
Reaction was mixed in the PACE among the democrats' supporters. Some wanted to make a major scandal and accuse the assembly of Russophobia. They realized, however, that they would lack the votes to have Margelov approved in any case. Therefore, they sought a concession in exchange, settling, after negotiations between the two presidents, on the snubbing of former PACE delegate Saakashvili. The Russian delegation had argues that, since there will parliamentary elections in Georgia in three months, his invitation amounted to political support. Human rights in Georgia will be discussed at the next PACE session.
Furthermore, a report prepared by Belgian Luc van den Brande on the recent Russian parliamentary elections will not be read by the assembly until the summer session, two sessions away. Van der Linden invited Putin to attend the April PACE session, which would be impossible if the report were read then.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2008
|
|
|
