The deputy of the State Duma from the Yabloko faction Alexandr Shishlov said that the refusal of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of Russia to participate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) session, which will open in Strasbourg on June 26, is a “political error”.

In his interview to the journalists on June 22 Alexandr Shishlov also said that he and Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko will participate in the work of the PACE session.

They intend to “persuade the members of PACE to recall its April resolution depriving the Russian delegation of its right to vote.” In April the PACE session proposed to begin the procedure of suspension of Russia’s membership in this organisation in view of the policies of the Russian authorities in Chechnya.

According to Alexandr Shishlov, “the practices of a boycott have never brought anything good”, “One should learn to conduct a dialogue and to prove its point of view with arguments, rather than a demarche of the offended, and together seek for the ways out of the deadlock, where we – Russia and PACE – have driven ourselves by joint efforts,” said Alexandr Shishlov.

He also reminded that the main goal of PACE is the “protection of human rights”. “When joining the Council of Europe Russia took up corresponding obligations, now it has to fulfil them,” stressed Alexandr Shishlov. He also noted that “the Europeans have been and still do put the question of the rights of the civilians, refugees and our Russian soldiers, rather than the rights of the bandits”. Based on Interfax reports.