Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of EuropeMOSCOW, Mar 2Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko believes that in a situation where Moscow's participation in the work of the Committee of Ministers of Europe and PACE was suspended, a contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe should not be paid. «Obviously, if we do not participate in full, then of course, with what joy we should we will pay for the whole thing,» he said live on Rossiya 24, commenting on the initiative of representatives of the Federation Council to suspend the payment of membership fees to the budget of the Council of Europe against the backdrop of the decision to suspend Russia's representation in PACE and the Committee of Ministers of Europe. Grushko added that «I don't think that now this is a matter of principle, it is a matter of principle of the survival of this organization, of its conventional system, the question is exactly that, and not Russia's participation.»
Medvedev said that Russia joined the Council of Europe and PACE «because of its youth» Russia is one of the main contributors to the organization's budget. It contributes to the single budget of the Council of Europe (PACE, Committee of Ministers of Europe, ECtHR and other organizations) two years in advance. Depending on the country's GDP, the contribution ranges from 32 million to 36 million euros. Strasbourg's decision was made against the backdrop of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Russia tried to preserve the Council of Europe as a pan-European, self-sufficient platform, without Moscow it will not exist, said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko «I want to say that this is such a political crossbow … It was decided to suspend Russia in the bodies of the Council of Europe, they said that this is a temporary decision, that it is reversible, and while we are in this position. Obviously, for the foreseeable The situation will not improve in the future, but again, everything will depend on the sanity of our partners. If they want to destroy the organization, and if Russia leaves it, then the Council of Europe will simply lose its existence,» Grushko said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel. 
Dzhabarov: The Council of Europe must return to Russia a contribution of 32.5 million eurosAccording to him, the European Union is trying to use the Council of Europe as its own appendage, a kind of «waiting room for entry into the European Union.» «Russia is one of the few countries, Turkey is still on our side, there was Norway, some other countries that tried to keep the Council as a pan-European platform, as a self-sufficient one, as a platform where you can join forces in solving a number of problems related to the preservation of legal identity Council of the European Space, therefore, without us it will not happen,» the deputy head concluded. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early on Thursday morning, February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» To this end, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine» bloody crimes against civilians» of Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, nothing threatens the civilian population. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the Russian President emphasized.The monster generated by the Maidan must be destroyed On Wednesday morning, more than 1.5 thousand objects were hit: airfields, command posts, radar stations, and so on. The territory around the Chernobyl (mothballed) and Zaporozhye (operating) nuclear power plants was taken under control. Eight years later, the North Crimean Canal was unblocked, work is underway to restore water supply to the Crimea. The offensive is going on in several directions, Kyiv is blocked from the west. A detailed map of the regions of Ukraine in which the Russian military operates, however, has not yet been officially published. The RF Armed Forces have achieved air supremacy over the whole of Ukraine. According to the RF Ministry of Defense, there are dead and wounded among the Russian troops, but the losses among the Ukrainian troops and nationalists are many times higher. Exact figures have not yet been released. The Russian military department reports a number of cases of voluntary laying down of arms by Ukrainian troops — they are guaranteed safety and return to their families. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian security forces are deploying multiple rocket launchers right in the residential areas of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Putin called it a terrorist tactic.
