Kommersant, Russia
June 23 2005

PACE Demanded Compensation for the Baltic Republics

// And it might lose the Russian contribution

The Parliamentary Assembly of European Council (PACE) session in
Strasburg yesterday adopted a resolution with several amendments that
were unpleasant for Moscow. For instance, the parliamentarians
demanded that Russia pay out compensations for the citizens of the
Baltic republics who were deported during the Soviet occupation.
Also, it was recommended that Moscow stop its political and financial
support of Byelorussia. In response, the Russian delegation members
offered their European counterparts to cancel PACE’s monitoring. They
pointed out that it was bad manners to criticize Russia on June 22
(the day when WWII began in Russia). Also, Russia promised not to pay
dues to PACE anymore. Special Kommersant correspondent Nargiz Asadova
reports from Strasburg.

Right before the “Russian Day” at PACE, during which the European
parliamentarians examined how Russia complies with its obligation
that it took upon itself before joining the European Council, Russian
representatives in Strasburg held the “Evening of the Friends of
Russia.” All PACE leadership showed up, two speakers of the Russian
report – David Atkinson and Rudolf Bindig, and of course the
delegations of the former Soviet republics. Konstantin Kosachev, head
of the Duma committee for foreign affairs, gave the speech to the
guests. However, Mikhail Margelov, Kosachev’s colleague from the
Federation Council, decided not to come for the party.

On the next day, Atkinson and Bindig read their report to the
audience. Bindig noted that during the years at PACE as its member,
Russia made undeniable progress establishing the rule of law and
democracy. Then, the speaker was mentioning for a long time what
obligations were not complied by Russia: the troops did not leave
Pri-Dnestrovie and Georgia, the Baltic country citizens did not
receive compensation, independent television does not exist, and the
judicial system is not free from executive powers pressure. The
speakers concluded that Russia is still not a free and democratic
country.

The Western European representatives tried really hard not to much
offend Russian parliamentarians, so they pointed out not only the
faults but Russia’s achievements as well. However, the
representatives from the post-Soviet countries made a lot of
complaints. The Russian delegation tried to tell their counterparts
not to teach them democracy, because a democratic way is free choice
of Russia and the country will stay on it. The Russian delegation
appeared to be the noisiest one compared with other PACE members. If
the European parliamentarians were listening to reports without
showing emotions, Russians were exploding with applause after each
phrase from the compatriots.

The most offence Russian took was for the accusation that the country
did not prohibit the death penalty. `We don’t use the death penalty
in Russia for the last 10 years. But the Russian government cannot
judicially forbid it because it will go against the public opinion in
the country. What are we supposed to do – follow the demands of the
European Council or listen to our own people? Especially after the
terrorist operation in Beslan…’asked Leonid Slutsky, representative
of the Russian delegation. Then, Slutsky pointed out another problem
spot in PACE’s report: `In paragraph four of the projected resolution
there is a note that unjust privatization gave oligarchs control over
several industries. More than 90 percent of Russians will agree with
this. However, as soon as the authorities start to investigate these
frauds, you know what is happening next. I can say only one thing:
the West looked at YUKOS case as abuse of democratic norms by Russia
and Russians do not understand the West attitude.’

Kosachev actually agreed with some critical points of the speakers.
`We are ready to agree with an idea of the creation independent
TV-Radio Broadcasting Corporation despite the fact that it is not an
obligation for Russia. In this year there was a thorough examination
of the projected federal law about transformation os state-owned
media, including TV and radio channels, into the public ones,’
Kosachev said. Then, he said that the monitoring is not the best tool
of PACE and suggested to bring the monitoring cancellation subject in
Russia early next year.

The parliamentarians from the Baltic countries got really upset about
the prospective of canceling the monitoring of Russia. The Estonian
representative stated the monitoring process must continue to make
Moscow follow through with its obligations.

The Baltic Countries, Azerbaijan and Georgia, together added several
amendments into the projected resolution. One of the amendments was a
demand to recognize the occupation of the Baltic republics by the
Soviet Union and to pay out compensation to the deported citizens.
Azerbaijan wanted to withdraw Russian troops from Georgia but to
Russian territory instead of Armenian. `They are trying to resolve
their own problems using PACE’s monitoring and these demands are not
included in the monitoring rules and have nothing to do with the
democratization of Russian,’ Kosachev told Kommersant.

In the meantime, Natalya Narochnitskya took the microphone. `I want
to remind that today is June 22, the day of the attack of the Nazi
army on my own country. And as strange as it sounds, it exactly today
our country that saved Europe from defeat in World War II and helped
Europeans not to become pig herders and maids for the Third Reich is
being patted on the shoulder in a mentoring way and being accused of
occupation. This paternal tone of speech surprises me. You see, the
speakers don’t like there is such an expression in Russia as `close
abroad.’ But it happened when the Soviet Union collapsed and a lot of
countries appeared that weren’t even on the map before. And there are
a lot of Russian people still in these countries. And their fate is
our concern,’ Narochnitskya concluded. The Russian delegation
supported her with long applause.

However, A lot of people got upset. `I am speaking from the name of
the country that for centuries was on the maps and in my view nobody
was using a mentoring tone. The report was constructive and right,
even sometimes too soft in some moments,’ the Georgian representative
responded to the Russian speech.

Soon the discussion was over and the parliamentarians started to
discuss new amendments. The Russian delegation to the very last
moment was insisting that all the demands about recognition of the
occupation of the Baltic countries is nothing more than rubbish and
the amendments will not go through. Though, the speaker Bindig tried
to persuade Kommersant in the opposite: `When Russia was entering
PACE in 1996, it signed a promise to pay out compensation to all
deported citizens.’

And that was true that all amendments that were unpleasant for the
Russian delegation were adopted by the majority of votes. PACE
members recognized the occupation of the Baltic countries by the USSR
and demanded payment of compensation to the deported citizens; they
demanded to sign as soon as possible the border agreement with
Lithuania; they supported restitution of cultural treasures taken
from the Baltic countries to USSR; they voted to speed up the
archives opening that are older than 50 years. Finally, the PACE
members with 76 votes against 40 recommended Russia to stop financial
and political support of Byelorussia. However, the amendment proposed
by Azerbaijan about withdrawing Russian military bases, not to
Armenia but to Russia, was declined.

`The assembly was shaken. They accepted amendments that delegations
used to reach their national causes,’ Kosachev said when the voting
was over. `It is possible that Russia made a mistake in 1996 while
joining PACE and didn’t pay careful attention to the phrase
`occupation of the Baltic countries.’ But PACE also has its own
mistake in the case of Byelorussia. Our relationships with this
country should not be a concern of the European council.’

Then Kosachev gave a clear hint that Russia intends to cut down
drastically its dues to PACE and will stop being one of the five
biggest sponsors of the organization, which pay 23 million euros per
year. However, he added, `It is absolutely not connected with
yesterday’s resolution.’

by Nargiz Asadova, Strasburg