Ukraine has recalled its ambassador to Strasbourg, France, and temporarily suspended its participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, after the 47-nation international body overwhelmingly voted to reinstate Russia’s unrestricted membership, despite significant opposition by Ukrainian delegates and their close allies.
Russia will be able to participate fully in assembly proceedings, including the election of a new secretary general to lead the Council of Europe. The Russian delegation was stripped of its voting rights after the military invasion and illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014. In response, and since 2017, Russian delegates have boycotted the assembly, left their seats vacant and refused to pay $37 million in annual budget payments to the Council.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ukrainian delegation to the assembly are now considering options in response to Russia’s reinstatement, including the boycott of what delegates and senior lawmakers have called a “discredited” and “immoral” Council of Europe.
“We do not see ourselves in the same room with the Russians,” Mariya Ionova, acting chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada committee for European integration, told the news agency Interfax-Ukraine. “We will stand up and protest,” she said. “And when they remain in the hall, we will leave it,” she added.
As the Kyiv Post went to print on June 26, it became clear that the delegations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Poland and Slovakia would join Ukraine in temporarily walking out of PACE in protest at Russia being reinstated.
“We are trying to persuade them to stay,” said Sir Roger Gale, a U.K. member of parliament and London’s head delegate to PACE.
‘Moral capitulation’
PACE is the 324-seat parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, which is mandated to hold governments accountable on human rights issues, push for reforms and uphold democratic standards. It also oversees the European Court of Human Rights and includes 19 more nations than the 28-member European Union among its member states.
Many Ukrainians feel betrayed and double-crossed by the June 25 vote in Strasbourg. The assembly voted in favor of the full restoration of Russia’s rights as a PACE member, essentially lifting one of the most important European sanctions against Russia in the process.
It was a lopsided vote: 118 delegates voted for the motion, 62 voted against and 10 abstained.
The delegates of France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Turkey unanimously supported Russia. A majority of delegates from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovakia and Finland also supported the motion.
Joining Ukraine in robustly opposing Russia’s return were Georgia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden and the Baltic states.
Ukraine’s delegation to PACE and senior politicians have branded the restoration of Russian voting rights at the Assembly a “unilateral surrender” to the Kremlin and a betrayal of European values. They argue that Russia has not addressed European demands on illegally occupied Crimea — where human rights violations have become common. Neither has the Kremlin stopped supporting militants in the Donbas, which is in its sixth year of a war that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
“This means the moral capitulation of Europe’s human rights watchdog,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, told the Kyiv Post on June 26. “Welcoming the aggressor, the Council of Europe has opened Pandora’s box, which will lead to serious security consequences for the continnent,” she added.
The day’s events prompted outraged speeches from Ukrainian delegates at PACE, most of them broadcast on television or live streamed across social media.
“We have adopted seven resolutions on Russia and not a single one was implemented,” said Oleksii Goncharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and delegate to Strasbourg. “Now we are changing rules and procedures to allow Russia to come back. It’s abnormal… this could be the Strasbourg betrayal,” he added.
“Our people shed blood to protect your lives… we stopped the aggressor at the border,” said Olena Sotnyk, another Ukrainian representative to PACE. “We fight for European values… this is all about fake values, principles and double standards,” she added.
Ukraine’s ambassador to PACE, Volodymyr Ariev, said he was witnessing a “festival of hypocrisy” at the June 25 vote in the Council, a body which was responsible for shaping the European Convention on Human Rights and is tasked with helping member states to resolve conflict.
“What we are really doing here is fulfilling the demands of the aggressor… and completely ignoring the state that is the target of aggression,” Ariev said, suggesting that PACE could be in breach of its own conventions and statutes.
“I don’t know how to continue working here,” a visibly frustrated Ariev told the assembled delegates of PACE.
Ariev and his team were recalled to Kyiv by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shortly after the vote. Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that “suspending participation in PACE is quite a logical step.”
“But it’s not forever,” he clarified, adding that Ukraine must not surrender the Council of Europe “to the mercy of Russia and its friends.”
Only 62 delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe opposed a motion to fully reinstate Russia to the Assembly. (Map: Daniel Szeligowski/PISM via Twitter)
Prevention failure
In November 2018, Western officials warned that a controversial Russian candidate tied to the Kremlin was poised to take over Interpol, the international policing organization. Western delegates to Interpol, reportedly led by Ukrainians, Americans and Brits, successfully mobilized opposition and a South Korean candidate was elected instead at the last moment.
In the days leading up to the June 25 vote at PACE in Strasbourg, something similar was afoot. But those efforts could not prevent the outcome and Russia’s unconditional return to the Assembly.
Klympush-Tsintsadze said that her country’s delegates and its closest allies in Europe had failed to persuade enough delegates to prevent the pro-Russian motion from passing.
“For Ukraine, the organization has lost its moral authority,” she said. “PACE voted for the unconditional return of the Russian delegation, under the pretext of protecting the rights of ordinary Russians, but in reality it’s because of money.”
Petr Tolstoy, the head of Russia’s delegation to PACE, confirmed that Ukrainian and British delegates had been attempting to change minds in the Council. He accused them of attempting to “take the Assembly hostage.”
“Apart from wasting time and testing the nerves of their European colleagues, they achieved nothing,” Tolstoy said, according to Interfax.
Return of lawbreakers
The Council of Europe is already processing appeals from the Ukrainian delegation and its allies. Ukraine and Georgia have filed official complaints against the decision and PACE has referred those to the Venice Commission. Appeals will focus on the shaky legal ground on which Russia has been reinstated.
Four out of the 18 delegates from the current Russian delegation are under international sanctions because they voted for or have otherwise supported Russian aggression against Ukraine. Six of the delegates have drawn particular criticism from Ukrainian lawmakers.
“They voted for the annexation of Crimea and the usage of troops in Ukraine,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
Some European representatives to the assembly have been accused of supporting Russia rejoining PACE because it could further their own personal or national interests. The European Council has been the focus of corruption scandals in the past, sometimes involving delegates from Russia or Central Asia allegedly bribing European lawmakers with gifts and foreign trips.
Other delegates will have voted for Russia’s membership at the Assembly to be reinstated as they think it could make the Kremlin more accountable to international law, especially the European Convention on Human Rights.
Presidential readiness
Volodymyr Ariev says that Ukraine could have been better prepared for the confrontation in Strasbourg, claiming that delegates had appealed to President Volodymyr Zelensky to “form a unified political position” before the PACE session on June 25. Zelensky ignored the requests, he alleged.
“Our appeals did not receive due attention, and as a result, the Ukrainian delegation remained without the political support of the head of state,” Ariev said, as cited on the European Solidarity party website, the party of former president Petro Poroshenko — a Zelensky opponent. Ariev could not be reached for comment.
Zelensky responded to the events in Strasbourg via a post on Facebook, writing that he was “disappointed” at the PACE outcome.
He said he had discussed the issue with French President Emmanuel Macron on June 17 and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on June 18, “trying to convince them that return of the Russian delegation to PACE was possible only after Russia met PACE conditions.”
“It’s a pity that our European partners didn’t hear us and did it otherwise,” Zelensky wrote.
Delegates to PACE have a free vote. It is not known how many representatives were influenced by their country’s government.
“I am grateful to the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation and friendly national delegations who bravely fought to the end,” Zelensky wrote.
Reactions and advice
Linas Linkevicius, the Lithuanian minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement that his country had strictly opposed Russia’s reinstatement and that Russia’s “unconditional return” to PACE was “at the expense of its own values and principles.”
Kersti Kaljulaid, the president of Estonia, said that “maneuvering” Russia back into PACE was an embarrassment to the organization.
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia had joined Ukraine, as well as Georgia, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, in lobbying energetically to secure a different outcome on June 25. Ukrainian lawmakers and British delegates said they had “fought to the end” and “did not betray their principles.”
“As co-chair of the UK-Ukraine parliamentary friendship group, I am happy that the majority of the British delegation did not support Russia’s return to PACE,” said Alex Ryabchyn, a Ukrainian member of parliament from Donetsk.
“I hope this decision won’t turn Ukraine away from integration with Europe,” he added. “But our leaders should now kickstart the discussion on how to protect our national interests, given this new international reality. Multilateralism is dying.”
Mark Pritchard, a British member of parliament and leader of the U.K. delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told the Kyiv Post that the U.K. does not support Russia’s unconditional return to PACE. After Brexit, the United Kingdom is not leaving the Council of Europe.
“Britain has consistently called on Russia to pay all of its outstanding budgetary contributions to the Council of Europe and show that it takes its values seriously, including human rights,” Pritchard said. “Russia should fulfill all its obligations before any return of its delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly,” he added.
However, Pritchard said that Ukraine should remain engaged with PACE, adding that it’s an important institution for human rights, democracy and the rule of law: “It is also a platform for shining a light on Russia’s illegal and aggressive behaviour,” the U.K. lawmaker added.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian member of parliament who opposed Russia’s illegal seizure of Crimea in 2014 and recently became a Ukrainian citizen after five years of self-imposed exile in Ukraine, had strong words for PACE and Ukraine’s future within it.
“Previously, this organization had the status of useless, but highly moral. Now it is useless and immoral,” he told the Kyiv Post. “But the biggest downside here, is it can be a potential trigger for the lifting of sanctions. But by itself I believe PACE is a redundant institution, and that the EU Parliament and the European Commission should be the real focus for Ukraine.”
John Whittingdale is a U.K. member of parliament and former secretary of state who currently chairs both the Ukrainian friendship committee in Westminster and the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He told the Kyiv Post that bringing Russia back into PACE was misguided, and that Ukraine needs to be concerned, but should not back down.
“It is serious — and it’s the first sign of a weakening of the resolve to maintain pressure on Russia. However, Ukraine should not withdraw from PACE, but continue to use it to highlight Russia’s flouting of international law and its human rights abuses.”
For her part, Ukraine’s vice prime minister seems to agree: “We should carefully reconsider the format of Ukraine’s participation in the work of the Council of Europe. But I believe Ukraine should continue to fight for values and international law in the Council…” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
“Together, with those standing strong, we should redouble our efforts to make sure that Europe returns to its basic principles.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov contributed to this report.
