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Russia suspended from Council of Europe over Crimea and Ukraine
An angry Russia said on Thursday that it would consider pulling out of the Council of Europe, Europe's leading human rights body, following a vote to suspend it from the council's parliamentary assembly.

The council's assembly backed a resolution to withdraw the voting rights of Russia's 18-member delegation. The ban lasts until the end of 2014. The assembly also terminated Russia's right to participate in election observation missions and turfed it off its most prestigious committees.

The resolution, adopted by 145 votes to 21, with 22 abstentions, was passed after a heated three-hour debate in Strasbourg. Russian members stormed out of the chamber before the vote took place. The assembly condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea, its military occupation of Ukrainian territory, and Moscow's "illegal so-called referendum" on the peninsula. This – and Moscow's ongoing threat of "military force" – constituted "beyond any doubt, a grave violation of international law", the assembly declared.

The 47-nation Council of Europe is separate from the EU and oversees the European court of human rights. Unusually, it brings together parliamentarians from both western and eastern Europe, as well as the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Russia has been a member since 1996. The decision to suspend Russia may provoke a sharp response from the Kremlin.

Speaking at a chaotic, ill-tempered press conference after the vote, the head of the Russian delegation, Alexey Pushkov, said Russia would consider terminating its membership of the assembly. A decision would be made in "the next two or three weeks", Pushkov said.

Several of his colleagues launched a venomous attack on European countries that had moved to punish Russia. Some Europeans had adopted a "pathologically biased approach" and had treated Russia – a "great country" – in a scornful and condescending manner. "Since arriving here a year and a half ago I haven't heard a nice word said about the Russian Federation," one complained.

Pushkov declined a request to speak in English, although he did answer one question in French. "We speak Russian," he said defiantly. He accused the United States, not a member of the assembly, of adopting double standards, after bombing Belgrade in the 1990s and invading Iraq. "It [the US] doesn't have a moral right to comment on our behaviour," Pushkov said.
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The council's parliamentary assembly has suspended the voting rights of the Russian delegation once before, from April 2000 to January 2001 over the situation in Chechnya. There have been other challenges, but in these cases the assembly reconfirmed Russia's credentials after a debate.

He accused the United States, not a member of the assembly, of adopting double standards, after bombing Belgrade in the 1990s and invading Iraq. "It [the US] doesn't have a moral right to comment on our behaviour," Pushkov said.

Russia tells EU leaders Ukraine debt may affect gas transit
In a letter to European leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Ukraine's gas-related debt could impact transit supplies to the West. He called for urgent discussions to resolve outstanding financial issues.
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In his letters to EU leaders, Putin said he was in favor of speedily finding a mechanism for "urgent discussions" on Ukraine's debt problem.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at an event in Berlin Thursday Russia had always been a reliable energy supplier to Western nations. But in a broadside against EU plans for the bloc to grow more independent of Russian deliveries in response to the crisis, Shuvalov quipped Russia had other potential partners for oil and gas deliveries.

He added any sanctions the West was imposing on Russia would not change the country's behavior and would only lead to Russian society becoming more united.

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He accused the United States, not a member of the assembly, of adopting double standards, after bombing Belgrade in the 1990s and invading Iraq. "It [the US] doesn't have a moral right to comment on our behaviour," Pushkov said.

He is of course, completely correct, isn't he, Walter? If more people had been honest and had spoken truth to power, this whole affair wouldn't have happened.

Why should Russia accept being continually marginalized? Why should they accept US missiles and bases on their doorstep ?

The U.S. might be the exploited party. Based on the atrocities of WWII, Europeans are no angels, in my opinion.

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The U.S. might be the exploited party. Based on the atrocities of WWII, Europeans are no angels, in my opinion.

Your hypocrisy is, as always, stunning, Foofie.

You dismissed my basic premise that the Europeans should defend themselves against the Russian boogey man themselves today ...

(Russians are Eurasians; Europeans are descended from the Germanic tribes mixing with the Norse)

Foofie wrote:

(Russians are Eurasians; Europeans are descended from the Germanic tribes mixing with the Norse)

The Rus were a Norse tribe, one tribe of he Varangians. And those, like any other of the Norse tribes, were North Germanic tribes.