28/01/2021 | 09:51:17 Thank you, dear Chairman, Thank you, dear Colleagues, I have been in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly since 1993. I remember the joy of 1996 when a still democratic Russia - not the current Russia - joined our institution. I remember this same chamber, and I remember the obligations which were accepted by Russia. For example, withdrawing the 14th Army from Moldova was one of the first obligations. Second, to compensating deportees to Stalin's gulags from the Baltic countries. In... 27/01/2021 | 16:12:33 Dear friends, Madame Chairwoman, Dear Colleagues, Part of us were involved deeply trying to release Mr Navalny from jail, but unsuccessfully. New events happened in Russia and new fights are under way for the future of a democratic--the possible future of a democratic Russia. I would like to say this in the Russian language: "We love the Russian people and we hope for a democratic future for them". But I will go back to English, it will be more understandable for the European audience. So... 26/01/2021 | 18:47:20 Dear Friends, I have had a certain question mark about this whole process for the last 5 years. I have been in the Council of Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly since '93 and we have never needed such Joint Procedures in the last 20 years. It was enough for us to have our voice in the Assembly, and we looked at it collectively with the Committee of Ministers and the Secretary General. But this process has certain moments of a delay in the responses to anything that happens outside our... 26/01/2021 | 16:57:32 Thank you Mr Speaker, you are always so kind to amend my statements. I would now like to use my mother tongue German and also Yiddish to say, Mr Minister be healthy, and all of us remain healthy. And of course I will ask myself, what do you do? We are on the verge of Holocaust Memorial Day and radicalism is spreading in Europe, what is the German side doing to combat radicalism in Europe? Secondly, we talked about Navalny, but we shouldn't forget Boris Nemstov, what do you think: do we have... 26/01/2021 | 10:29:29 Yes sir. Thank you so much and thank you for smoothly chairing our meeting. From our side, I would like to point out after Mr Sergiy VLASENKO's statement that we concentrated in the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on questions to the Venice Commission during all this year about the Russian Federation being under international law and under the influence of the European Court of Human Rights's implementation of decisions. The amendments to the Russian Constitution make us extremely... 25/01/2021 | 13:34:08 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) In 2012 Georgia did what no other country in region has ever done- change of Government through elections. But what has happened in Georgia since is nothing else than democratic backsliding and the October elections is unfortunate proof of that. Yes, the decision not to take up seats in parliament is a hard for outsiders to understand. But, complete loss of trust towards elections as a way to change government would be worse. Opposition has... 25/01/2021 | 12:04:57 Dear colleagues and friends, and especially Rick who I congratulate for his usual election. Thank you for chairing us and chairing us in such a smooth way. I would like to tell you what is new: the events happening since Friday in Russia. We have 3,500 arrested people, detained, and we need to have at least a resolution in our urgent debate. So the Bureau, when you just discussed on Friday, you had no new evidence of Saturday's events, when thousands of people were arrested – and you should... 31/01/2020 | 11:45:58 This is encouragement to start to finance, after this new phenomenon appears, to finance the actions in European Union, well European Union have money, the Council of Europe does not have money. But maybe the European Union could financially help us combating disinformation because we have been allocated too scarce resources, too small resources. In 2018, the budget for strategic communication was expected to more than double, by about €2 million, from €2 million to €5 million. However, is... 31/01/2020 | 10:14:47 Thank you, Mr Chairman, Dear colleagues, especially my colleague Mr Frithjof SCHMIDT thank you for your scrupulous report. I remember my idea came about two years ago, in the Copenhagen Bureau, I suggested to have this hack democracy. We switched from paperwork, Mr Frithjof SCHMIDT, to proper news magazines to the Internet world, absolutely not prepared, and you mentioned very dangerous trends inside of our democratic societies, and the report is extremely scrupulous about that. So we are in... 29/01/2020 | 19:47:08 Thank you, dear speaker, I was always in the Chamber and have been in the Chamber since 1993. So, from 1993, I remember the Russian delegation with Sergei KOVALEV, all fantastic people who were awarded with all possible world human rights. And really, in the Yeltsin time, it was position and opposition. But position and opposition disappeared, and now we have a united voice from all sides. Even today, during the Monitoring Committee, we have the Romanian delegation, they have position and...