Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly votes for Russia’s return

The Council of Europe (CE)’s Parliamentary Assembly has voted to allow Russian representatives to return to the pan-European rights body after stripping them of voting rights in 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis.

Early on Tuesday, and following a late Monday night debate, 118 parliamentarians from CE member states voted for the return of the Russian delegation despite strong opposition by Ukraine, which accuses Russia of stirring a conflict in the east of the country.

Sixty two members of the Strasbourg-based assembly voted against Russia’s return to the fold. Ten countries abstained.

The vote potentially paves the way for Russia to take part in a Wednesday vote to elect the body’s new secretary general.

The CE, which is not connected to the European Union (EU), possesses no binding powers and merely brings together nearly 300 lawmakers from 47 European states to formulate its own recommendations on rights and democracy.

The European Court of Human Rights remains the body’s centerpiece.

The assembly stripped Russian delegates of their voting rights after people in Crimea — then part of Ukrainian territory —voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia in a 2014 referendum. The referendum was held amid Western-backed political unrest in Ukraine that toppled its president at the time and brought pro-EU politicians to power.

Moscow then responded by boycotting the CE and refusing to pay its 33-million-euro share of the annual budget of the European human rights institution.

Backed by Britain and Baltic countries, Ukraine had persistently opposed Russia’s return to the council.

It had previously warned that readmitting Moscow to the CE would be the first crack in the Western-led sanctions imposed on Russia since Crimea decided to join its eastern neighbor.

Russia denies any involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.

The Tuesday development also came after Russia threatened to quit the CE altogether if it was not allowed to take part in the Wednesday election of a new secretary general to replace Norwegian Thorbjorn Jagland.

Moscow’s withdrawal from the assembly would have barred Russian citizens from appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. France had expressed concerns about that scenario.