The members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organization dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, on Thursday adopted unanimously, with one abstention, a resolution calling the Russian Federation a terrorist regime.
TASS pointed out that of the 612 members of the council, only 100 were in attendance. Still, 99 voted for it, and only one abstained.
To date, the internationally recognized terrorist states have been Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria. Russia is by far the biggest and most powerful member of this world’s most despicable club.
The Assembly was debating a report by Emanuelis Zingeris from Lithuania––that’s Emanuel Singer to you and me, who wrote his post-graduate dissertation on the Jewish cultural heritage of Lithuania back in 1981 when such works didn’t exactly improve one’s chances for tenure––on further escalation in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, following a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It then strongly condemned the attempted annexation of Ukrainian regions by Russia, describing the so-called referendums in these regions as “an affront to international law” and “null and void, with no legal or political effects.”
The grateful Zelenskyy told the assembled PACE members: “We have a powerful response from PACE, which is the first international organization to designate the current regime in Russia as terrorist. It is very important that this is a political signal. A signal to all states – members of the Council of Europe and all states of the world, that there is nothing to talk about with this terrorist group, which appropriated Russia and unleashed the most heinous war in Europe in 80 years.”
“This is a record number of states supporting Ukraine today, but I believe that there will be more,” the Ukrainian president said, concluding: “We do not relax! We beat the enemy! We follow the safety rules! We listen to the air alarm signal! And we do everything to strengthen Ukraine!”
The resolution states that “this aggression must be unequivocally condemned as a crime, as a violation of international law, and as a major threat to international peace and security.”
PACE is one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe, along with the Committee of Ministers, the executive body representing governments, with which it holds an ongoing dialogue. However, it is the Assembly that drives the organization, holding governments to account on human rights issues, pressing states to maintain democratic standards, proposing fresh ideas, and generating momentum for reform.
TASS pointed out that back in June, State Duma Committee on International Affairs Chairman Leonid Slutsky said Russia was no longer a member of the Council of Europe and its parliamentary assembly. The lawmaker said that “Russophobic decisions and resolutions by PACE have absolutely no significance for Russia and the platform no longer has anything constructive to offer.”
For the record, at this point, all of Europe is pretty much Russophobic, as can be seen in our Thursday’s report, Terrified of Putin, 13 NATO Countries Want Israel’s Arrow 3…
