PACE RESOLUTION ON EXCLUSION OF RUSSIA FROM COUNCIL OF EUROPE INCLUDES CLAUSE ON "RUSSIAN OCCUPATION OF TRANSNISTRIA"

The resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Russia's exclusion from the Council of Europe includes a provision "about the Russian occupation of Transnistria." The resolution was adopted late Tuesday night.

"The Assembly deplores that despite numerous calls for an end to military action and respect for international law, the Russian leadership continues its aggression, escalating violence in Ukraine and threatening to intervene with other states. By its attitude and actions, the Russian leadership poses an open threat to security in Europe, following a path that also includes the act of military aggression against Georgia and the subsequent occupation of two of its regions in 2008, the illegal annexation of Crimea, and its role in eastern Ukraine, culminating in the illegal recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics as "independent states", and the act of military aggression against Moldova and the occupation of its Transnistrian region, respectively," the document reads.

The resolution was adopted almost unanimously: 216 votes were in favor, 3 abstentions and not a single vote against. PAS Party deputies Mihai Popsoi and Ion Groza voted for it. PAS deputy Natalia Davidovici, as well as deputies from the Bloc of Communists and Socialists did not take part in the vote.

The amendment concerning a part of the territory of the Republic of Moldova was not included in the initial text of the declaration, but it was introduced during the discussion of the draft document in the PACE committees. The initiators were PACE members from Romania, Ukraine, France, Estonia, Great Britain, Georgia and Turkey. Moldovan MPs were not among the authors of the initiative, which was included in the draft resolution as "the opinion of a group of PACE members."