Russia is decreasing its contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe (CoE) by the amount proportional to its lack of participation in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, said.

"As we have repeatedly stated, the amount of contribution will be frozen by a third for this year," Slutsky told Interfax on Saturday.

He recalled that the CoE has received an official notification "on a decrease in contribution in proportion to our lack of participation in the PACE's work."

Naturally, it can cause certain questions from the CoE's secretary-general and committee of ministers, the lawmaker said. "Because there is a lack of funds for the work and proper functioning of the Council of Europe, and Russia is one of the organization's major contributors." Slutsky said.

"However, continuous Russophobia at the PACE platform and never-ending vilification of us forced Russia to reconsider the situation with its payments, in my opinion, entirely appropriately," he said.

Russia is currently one of the major contributors to the CoE budget alongside the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Turkey. Russia's contribution in 2017 is over 33 million euros, which is above 7% of the CoE's total budget.

On June 6, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters that Russia would not pay around one-third of its annual contribution to the CoE budget and named the approximate amount. "This transfer has been blocked. Funds are transferred in a stage-by-stage manner. The remaining one-third part intended for the end of the year will not be transferred. It is approximately 11 million euros," Volodin said.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow has suspended payments of its contribution to the CoE until powers of the Russian Federal Assembly's delegation are fully restored.