Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Taras Kuzio The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) opens its autumn session in Strasbourg today. A motion before PACE calls upon its members to reconsider Russia’s membership because of its violation of the ‘basic principles’ of the Council of Europe.

The issue refers to Russia’s invasion of another Council of Europe member, Georgia, and Moscow’s support for the independence of two of its regions.

The PACE motion, if adopted, could lead to the suspension of the Russian delegations right to vote and even the suspension of Russia’s membership. No country has ever been expelled from the Council of Europe. Belarus never joined the Council of Europe before Lukashenka was elected in 1994 and after his election the Council of Europe refused to admit the country.

Not surprisingly one of Russia’s main apologists in Germany, Alexander Rahr (http://en.dgap.org/ri/staff/rahr.html ) who is described as a specialist on Ukraine (and Russia), has condemned the Council of Europe’s motion. Rahr has fully supported Russia’s position on Georgia and opposes any punishment by the Council of Europe or any other body of Russia’s aggression.

Rahr is the editor of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) newsletter and a member of YES’s executive board. YES is financed by Viktor Pinchuk as a lobby group for Ukraine’s membership of the EU. YES therefore pursues a worthy cause.

Nevertheless, YES is discredited by Rahr’s high profile presence in its body and his public face of YES through the newsletter. If Rahr supports Russia’s occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will he also support and apologise for Russia’s occupation of the Crimea, if that were to be Putin’s next target? Russia would then host YES’s annual summits in Yalta.

YES is also discredited by former President Kuchma’s high profile presence at every July gathering in Yalta. Although Kuchma is Pinchuk’s son-in-law Kuchma’s presence merely discredits the good work of YES and continues the Kuchma era’s mixing of personal and political issues.

Washington economist Anders Aslund wrote a glowing article entitled ‘Leonid Kuchma Built a Prosperous Ukraine’ (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/370505.htm) for The Moscow Times after this years Yalta summit (see my response in The Kyiv Post (http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op_ed/29568). The Institute for International Economics, where Aslund works, received a large donation from Pinchuk. In the West they say that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Russia should have been suspended from the Council of Europe for its war crimes in Chechnya where a tenth of the population have died since the mid 1990s. That did not happen. The Council of Europe should correct its mistake now and suspend Russia indefinitely until Moscow withdraws its recognition of South Ossetian and Abkhaz independence.

As to Rahr and Kuchma, YES would be receive a great deal more domestic and international respect without their involvement.