On March 20, 2023, the leadership of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held talks in Paris with representatives of Russian democratic forces to accelerate dialogue and explore ways to cooperate with the Assembly in the future. The meeting was a practical continuation of several PACE resolutions in which it repeatedly called for “developing interaction with Russian civil society, human rights activists, independent journalists, academics and democratic forces, respecting the values and principles of the Organization, including the position on the territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
Russian democratic forces were represented by:
– Natalia Arno, president of the Free Russia Foundation;
– Dmitry Gudkov, Russian Anti-War Committee/Russian Action Committee;
– Gennady Gudkov, Free Russia public movement;
– Sergei Guriev, Russian Anti-War Committee / Real Russia Project / Anti-Corruption Foundation;
– Evgeniya Kara-Murza, Free Russia Foundation;
– Garry Kasparov, Free Russia Forum/Russian Anti-War Committee/Russian Action Committee;
– Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian Anti-War Committee/Russian Action Committee.
Members of the PACE Presidium were:
– Tiny Kox, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe;
– Georgios Papandreou, vice chairman of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens (SOC) group;
– Alexander Potsey, chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP/CD) group;
– Zsolt Nemeth, vice chairman of the European Alliance of Conservatives and Democrats (EC/DA);
– Julian Boulay, chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE);
– George Loucaides, treasurer of the United European Left (UEL) group;
– Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tzovilis, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The participants agreed to continue this dialogue.
