Spiegel: "silence" of the Russian Federation will cost the Council of Europe millions of euros

Spiegel: "silence" of the Russian Federation will cost the Council of Europe millions of euros

As a sign of protest, the Russian Federation stopped paying a million installments to the budget of the Council of Europe, Der Spiegel reports. As the German edition notes, Moscow is "enraged" by the fact that due to the accession of the Crimea, the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation was deprived of the right to vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The news passes HardNews. "In protest," Russia has suspended the payment of contributions to the budget of the Council of Europe, reports Der Spiegel. "It's about millions of euros," the German edition said. Because of the "annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014" the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation was deprived of the right to vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, recalls Der Spiegel. The Russian leadership is "enraged" by this decision and "no longer intends to joke," the publication states. The suspension of the payment of contributions by the Moscow Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, was briefed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Der Spiegel said. The head of the foreign policy department of the Russian Federation "demanded of Jagland" unconditional restoration of the full powers "of Russia in the all-European organization," the German edition underscores. Der Spiegel also draws attention to the fact that the annual contribution of the Russian Federation to the budget of the Council of Europe is about € 33 million