"I think such project (creation of pro-Russian parliamentary group in the PACE-ed.) is possible because Pedro Agramunt was caught "red-handed." Indeed, I mean his Syrian trip by Russian plane, where his Russian connections became visible and it is clear that activity of the Ukrainian delegation, showing who the head of the PACE is, generates apparently the reverse reaction. In fact, the PACE is low influential structure today, it is not the European Union, it is not even the OSCE, but for Russia this platform is important. Moreover, when this refers to that that the first person of the Organization sided actually with Russians. So the loss of such an important accomplice is painful, but belonging to the Council of Europe, to the Parliamentary Assembly, is still the proof that country, they say, is democratic, although we understand that Russia is now extremely far from democracy. For Russia this platform (the Council of Europe) remains important. It thus continues to be in the circle of democratic countries ",- M.Gonchar said.
He pointed out that it's hard to call Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan as democratic countries. However, if we're talking about Italy or Spain - these countries are democratic, but they are known for their pro-Russian stance.
"...It looks quite logical if such group would appear, but I would not overestimate its capabilities. The Ukrainian side insists today on P.Agramunt's resignation, and consequently he will be defended, and it's likely that some sort of defending scenario will be mobilized to protect P.Agramunt", the expert added.
M.Gonchar recalled that today the PACE keeps away from the issue of political prisoners who have been held in Russia, who have been subjected to repressions on the territory of the occupied Crimea – these are Crimean Tatar activists, Ukrainian citizens and leaders of Crimean Tatars, to whom methods of punitive psychiatry have been applied.
"The PACE has not reacted to all this ," the expert said.
According to him, it is important that the issue of P.Agramunt's visit to Syria highlighted a serious problem "of corruption in the European structures, because nobody will so easy (without any commitments) fly on the military transport plane to Syria".
"Why the event had such a pained reaction? Because if it were some kind of further investigation, it could reveal other facts. This is not just a ground for informational battles, the phenomena of more serious order stays behind this - how Russia on the 4-th year of aggression against Ukraine still maintains the picture that this is not aggression against Ukraine, but civil conflict in Ukraine. And the fact, that this interpretation is often outweigh in European circles, does not only belong to achivements of Russian massive propaganda. This is the phenomenon of a deeper order. Certain interests and actions stay behind this; it could be attributed to the category of corruption when influential cronies, at the right time and in the right places, say the phrase "civil war", the conflict in Ukraine, and do not use the phrase "Russian aggression"; in the PACE suh phrases have been also told," M.Gonchar said.
We want to recall that the First Deputy Head of the Faction of Petro Poroshenko Bloc in the Parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko said that Russian lobby tries to create in the PACE a group of delegates from a number of countries and involve P.Agramunt in it.
