PACE refuses to register draft resolution amendment branding Putin terrorist

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) table office has refused to register a draft amendment calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a terrorist, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko, the amendment’s co-author, confirmed for the Kyiv Independent on Jan. 30.

Merezhko and other co-authors, including five Ukrainian representatives and Swedish MP Markus Wiechel, proposed the amendment as part of PACE’s planned resolution on “Europe’s Commitment to a Just and Sustainable Peace in Ukraine,” European Pravda reported earlier the same day.

After all the submitted amendments were published, Merezhko’s proposal was not among them.

PACE’s table office explained its decision by saying that “calling Putin a terrorist is against the rule of procedure because it ‘insults his dignity,'“Merezhko told the Kyiv Independent.

“The Table Office is obliged to rule this amendment out of order as designating a Head of State as a terrorist is tantamount to using offensive and insulting terms that are inappropriate in an official Assembly document,” the official reply by the table office read.

“I absolutely disagree with such misinterpretation of the PACE’s rules of procedure, because the term ‘terrorist’ is not an insult, it’s a legal term used in international legal documents, including international treaties,” Merezhko commented.

The lawmaker also pointed out that a previous PACE resolution recognizes Russia as a “terrorist regime,” adding that the issue should have been resolved by voting among PACE members, not with a decision by the table office.

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, which nears its third anniversary, has been accompanied by widespread destruction of Ukrainian residential areas and infrastructure, heavy civilian casualties, and numerous cases of torture and repression in the occupied territories.

“In my opinion, what happened is an act of political censorship which undermines the reputation of PACE and the Council of Europe,” Merezhko said.

PACE is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, an international organization of 46 countries, including Ukraine, that promotes democratic values and human rights. Russia was expelled from the body in early 2022 in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

The assembly has issued a number of resolutions regarding Russia during the full-scale war, calling for the establishment of an international special tribunal to hold Russia accountable for war crimes and recognizing Putin as an illegitimate dictator.

Chris York contributed reporting to this article.