The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a resolution in which it called on the Russian Federation to stop military aggression against Ukraine and recognized the Russian Federation as a party to the Minsk agreements, the European Pravda publication reports.

The document claims that the Russian Federation is reinforcing the negative trends of democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Including, arbitrarily uses the legislation to counter extremism to hush up opposition and criticism from civil society, impair religious freedom in the country, for example, the prohibition of Jehovah's Witnesses, establishes borders and implements the creeping annexation of the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the illegal annexation of Crimea and military aggression in eastern Ukraine.

PACE demands that Russia cease the illegal annexation of Crimea and implement all resolutions adopted in response to aggression against Ukraine.

Despite the protests of the Russian parliament members, the document was approved by an overwhelming majority: with 49 "affirmative votes" and 17 votes "against."