PACE said that the Russian delegation would not be eligible to participate in the Assembly until the autumn

The Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Bureau of the Assembly) agreed on the position of PACE President Anne Brasseur that the Russian delegation would not be eligible to participate in the Assembly until the election of new members of the Russian parliament. This was stated by Anne Brasseur at the press conference in Strasbourg after the meeting of the Bureau, - reports Evropeyska Pravda.

She confirmed that the legal position, which she sent to Moscow a week ago, was still valid: "They (Russians) will not be eligible to form its delegation during the year, except after new elections." Elections in Russia will be held in the middle of September of this year.

Brasseur also commented on statements by Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, who said last week that the position expressed by Brasseur had no legal basis.

"Kosachev thinks that I reacted emotionally and, for some reason, he believes that this is due to the fact that I'm a woman. And we are not talking about emotions but about the rules. Session begins legally in January and lasts until the end of the year, the delegation can apply only before the beginning of the session. The PACE Bureau has agreed to it,"- she said.

According to the President of the PACE, the Bureau of the Assembly took into consideration her letters to Moscow with the legal justification of the ban for Russia to participate in the Assembly and no one expressed objections to it.