Page 5 - RUSRptAug18

2.0 Politics
2.1 PACE to draft rules to readmit Russia that could lead to the end
of the sanctions regime
PACE to draft resolution to enable Russia’s return that could put a crack in the sanctions regime.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Bureau decided on June 29 to draft an urgent resolution enabling Russia’s return to the assembly’s work, the eurointegration.com.ua news site reports.
The PACE bureau asked the assembly’s procedures committee to prepare a resolution by October that will change the assembly’s rules and procedures and that would allow Russia’s to return to active participation in the body’s work.
The Russian delegation has boycotted PACE since 2016 and refused to pay its dues to the Council of Europe since 2017 after sanctions were imposed following Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory in the Donbas and Crimea.
Russia says it will not pay dues until the rules and procedures are amended to forbid the sanctions, a proposal that has been supported by PACE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland.
“It’s possible that PACE will capitulate to Russia’s blackmail attempt demanding the removal of sanctions in return for renewing its dues,” said Volodymyr Ariev, the head of Ukraine’s PACE delegation, on Facebook the same day.
“Everything will be decided in October at the PACE session,” he wrote. “The lobby will be enormous. The chances are 50/50 on whether PACE will remain a respected body.”
If PACE readmits Russia then analysts argue this could be the crack in the dyke that will lead to the gradual removal of the sanctions regime on Russia.
“PACE is the key dike that is propping up Western sanctions against Russia. That levee breaking will cause the floodgates to slowly and gradually open during the next four years, regardless of whether removing the sanctions is truly justified (as Jagland has argued), Zenon Zawada of Concorde Capital in Kyiv said in a note. “This is one of those decisions that can’t offer a compromise to satisfy both Russia and Ukraine. So the ultimate decision in October will have a large impact on Western relations with Russia and Ukraine. We can’t offer any more certainty than Ariev’s 50/50 expectation.”
2.2 90% of Russians against increasing the age of retirement
The independent pollster the Levada Center found in a recent survey that 90% of Russians were against the government’s June decision to increase the retirement ages from 55 (women) to 63 and 60 (men) to 63 years.
The vast majority of Russians do not support the bill on raising the retirement age introduced by the government to the State Duma. 89% of the respondents are negative about the authorities' intention to increase the retirement age for men under 65 and 90% of those polled - against increasing the retirement age
5 RUSSIA Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com