Halya Coynash: PACE to justify capitulation to Russia - Feb. 04, 2020

Russia broke most of its appalling human rights records in occupied Crimea during 2019, yet the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) still voted on January 25, 2020, to restore its voting rights. Russia had done nothing to reverse the grave violations of international law that prompted the sanctions, but that was deemed to be unimportant. Not entirely irrelevant, of course, but drowned out by mantra-like claims of ‘positive moves’, both with respect to Ukraine and in Chechnya. Such ‘positive moves’ were categorically rejected by veteran Russian human rights defender Sergei Kovalev and by Ukrainian human rights groups, but ignored, as they had been back in June 2019 when PACE’s capitulation to Russia effectively became a fait accompli.