Parliamentarian from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Volodymyr Ariev emphasizes that the issue of the return of the Russian delegation to PACE is raised again, but does not have full support.

"I've spent the closing days in PACE. The pro-Russian forces are again making plans for the return of the Russian Federation. They do not have unanimous support yet. But many fear that Russia will leave the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights - the only body that can directly influence Russian affairs, - will lose this opportunity," Ariev wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

He explains in PACE that Russia is most comfortable with this option: to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the ECHR and humiliate the Council of Europe. "And before the elections to the European Parliament, it would be perfect from the point of view of Russia to destroy the trust in the organization with the hands of the PACE in a hybrid way," Ariev added.

As reported, the PACE in 2014 deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote, and also introduced a number of other restrictions after the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In 2017, Moscow suspended the payment of part of the contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe.

In late February, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE MP Boryslav Bereza wrote on Facebook that the PACE planned to change the sanctions regime against the Russian Federation in order to return its delegation.