DISINFO: Moscow lost PACE voting rights due to Crimea's reunification with Russia
SUMMARY
The Russian delegation was stripped of its voting rights in April 2014 because of the situation in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative painting Russian military aggression against Ukraine as a domestic affair, and its illegal annexation of Crimea as a "re-unification" preceded by a "referendum."
The decision to strip the Russian delegation of voting rights at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in April 2014 was a direct response to the illegal annexation of Crimea which, in PACE's view, "created a threat to stability and peace in Europe" (para. 6).
In the January 2020 resolution restoring these rights, the Assembly explicitly "recalls its position on the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" (para. 6). The Assembly's Monitoring Committee reiterates its concerns regarding Russia's "illegal annexation of Crimea and military aggression in Eastern Ukraine" (para. 3.8), among many others.
Read this debunk of Russia's claim that Crimea "rejoined" Russia as a result of a "referendum," and this one disproving the claim that Russia is not involved in the Donbas war.