Interfax's Interview

Mr. President, what is your idea of the Russian role and place at the Council of Europe and its commitments to the organization?

First of all, Russia is not a rank-and-file member of the Council of Europe. It is a very important country, which is obvious even to a schoolchild. It is huge, not only from the point of view of geography but also from the point of view of its powerful cultural and political influence on the development of Europe. Also, it is a major player on the world scene.

 I think that the Russian accession to the Council of Europe in 1996 changed the very nature of that organization. Although the Council of Europe had never been a Cold War institution due to its special mission, it was still part of the Western system. It changed a lot with the eastward enlargement, especially with the admission of Russia.

 Russia is a large country and it has a large delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly and carries a large weight in the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. This weight is much larger than the one of small and medium-sized members of the organization. This is a fact, a reality. Thus, many are closely watching its development, mostly with positive feelings. Russia was unanimously admitted to the Council of Europe. The assembly had the unanimous will for admitting Russia to the community of European democracies. I think this attitude to your country will persist.

What is your opinion of the current situation in Russia? It is one of the Council of Europe member countries subjected to monitoring.

Maybe, many members of the Council of Europe are watching Russia very closely and are very strict to it. Firstly, it is a truly big and influential country that chaired the Council of Europe six months ago. Secondly, Russia, the same as other countries, must fulfill its commitments to the Council of Europe in the spheres of democracy, human rights, the supremacy of law and so on.

In some spheres Russia has made huge progress and conducted profound reforms. In some other areas difficulties are obvious. Same things happen to other countries. The latest monitoring (which slightly slowed down for obvious reasons during the Russian chairmanship at the Council of Europe) gave an impression that things were not as good as we had wished.

One of the examples is the legislative ban on the death penalty, which Russia is slow to enact. It is the question of the ratification of the sixth protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a delicate issue for us. True, I know that there is a number of initiatives and Russian President Vladimir Putin provided former PACE President Rene van der Linden with certain guarantees.

Furthermore, Russia has not ratified the 14th protocol required to reform the European Court of Human Rights. As to the practicalities, this resulted in the fact that one was forced to replace all judges, which had a negative influence on the work of the court. All the governments are wondering why Russia is dragging out the signing. The Russian side gave us an odd and very insulting argument: it said that the European Court of Human Rights was not fair to the Russian state.

But the European Court is not us, it is not PACE or the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. These judges are independent. Nearly all the countries, including my homeland, Spain, have criticized the European Court for what they viewed as unfair judgments. I do not like judgments targeted against my country. But they are made by judges on the basis of legal arguments. This is justice, not politics.

Meanwhile, the State Duma is very touchy and highly critical of the European Court and its activity. However, this cannot be the excuse for boycotting the 14th protocol. Mr. Kosachyov (Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee and head of the Russian delegation to PACE) promised me that everything would be all right. That’s good. However, the delayed decision of Russia had already disrupted the normal functioning of the court.

PACE members also have concerns about human rights in Chechnya and some other questions to Russia.

Finally, for the latest election of the State Duma. We all know about conclusions of the PACE election observation mission. Its head, leader of the European People's Party, Luc van der Brande has clearly stated that observers do not contest the results of the elections. Russians voted as they voted. However, there are questions as to the electoral campaign, as to guaranteeing equal opportunities for all political parties to promote their candidates.

Things that happened in Russia do not comply with the adopted standards of the Council of Europe. Our observers draw similar conclusions in other countries from time to time. I was the chief of the election observation mission in Mexico, which is not a member but an observer state of the Council of Europe. My conclusion was very tough and critical. The Mexicans listened to us, drastically reformed the electoral system, and came here for consultations.

I hope that the upcoming presidential elections in Russia will be better and the PACE election observation mission will make a positive reform.

We are proud that the Council of Europe has Russia amongst its member states and we want to believe that it will be steadily moving to the standards of our organization. The monitoring in Russia will finally end with a clear confirmation of all changes required for this. There remains a few things that need to be put in order and if this happens, than Russia's role in the Council will be more significant.
 
What would PACE recommend to Russian authorities, the media and people for developing freedom of speech?

In particular, it is required that the freedom of speech is not only allowed, but also guaranteed. It is unthinkable for us that there are governments that think that TV, radio, and newspapers belong to them and do not tolerate the existence of free and critical press. This is not our standard.

We think that a country should avoid the concentration of the media. This is the principle of the Council of Europe. We always speak about the plurality of the media, the dispersion of the media control, and we strongly criticized Silvio Berlusconi, when he was the prime minister of Italy, from that angle.

The concentration of the media in the hands of the state does not comply with the concept of the freedom of speech, and this freedom plays a very important role in our society.

What, in your opinion, should Russia and the Baltic countries do but are not doing for improving the position of the Russian minority in Latvia and Estonia?

We are drafting a new report on national minorities. It will focus on the Baltic countries.
 Democracy is our primary target. Once a country has national minorities, their rights must be recognized and respected. We realize that this is hard to do in certain countries because of their history. However, it is always possible to find a reasonable solution.

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