toyota welcome to spotlight on today my guest on the show is. the council of europe parliamentary assembly has started its autumn session amid controversy over a report on russia over the best report since russia's a session of the council the resolution contains strong and arguably unfair criticism eventually samara based propositions made to had a russian delegation stayed there with chairman said again that bypassed the taste meet spotlight interview the other day today it's the turn. to share his views on the state of relations between russia and the council of you talked to the council said. yeah the. pace expressed his

concerns with the russian democracy he didn't pasta tough resolution but eventually the council didn't recommend it to a decision making body monitoring russia council secretary-general borgen doglegs of the goal was to help russia with its obligations but for many remain unclear why the council chose such an extravagant way of helping. the island welcome to the show thank you thank you very much for being with us thank you very much good morning good morning well the russian state duma the chairman said again that it was about to come to the recent pay session but boycotted days before the beginning how did the council of europe consider this gesture. well. the delegate the russian delegation to the parliamentary assembly decided to com here and

actually they became quite influential so it shows that it is important to be present when things are being discussed and actually the russian delegation was sable to change. some of the content of this report in particular that this report is a resolution. instead of a recommendation going to the commodore means is and i think that for directions side it was quite important to change missing that risk and said he decided not to get this transfer of after he had found out pace was about to transform the monitoring functions to the council of europe committee of ministers this was a last minute proposal which finally failed why do you think it failed do you do you think it was because of the moscow's boycott. no i think it was on the

contrary that the russian delegation showed up in the council europe. had an influence. on the. deliberations here and i think also that the council of europe didn't want to target russia in particular we want to string snow over use on monitoring be a more be more assertive with regard to the obligations that all the member says have undertaken but we do not want to target one more some countries in that respect. talking to spotlight said again there is can mentioned the ruth the fabric moods of sandal a geisha in the pace do you agree that some council of europe members really are prejudiced are anti russian you that. to some extent i can agree on that

birth all in all though you should look at the final result of this discussion namely i think that there is an agreement that. everybody is on an equal footing and that we do not want to target and the particular member states but we want to be more much more assertive when it comes to fulfilling the obligations that all the member states have undertaken. the report darted by a pace has quite enough indications that some of its authors were unfamiliar with the russian law is it is a common situation that pace issues recommendations to to some country without taking into account the local legislation. well i cannot. speak on behalf of the parliamentary assembly. but because i'm the secretary

general of the whole organisation so this is a report coming from the assembly itself. of course takes a report into considerations but. this is not the final say over the whole organisation and you know where the reason i'm asking is this i've talked to mr risk and the other day and one thing that he didn't like at all is that the pay set for example the situation with with expelling pretty good coffee from the duma in the pace it was mentioned that there was no trial at all that mr good called was expelled from the duma without any trial but most of the risk and pointed out that there shouldn't have been no trial he's not accused of any violation of law he's he lost his main date because because he didn't he didn't. respond to the rules of being a deputy of the russian state duma so so so so so why is that

a thing. well i do not want to go into all the details in this report. the parliamentary assembly has to ask all the answer all these questions. but of course this is coming from that side of the organization and we are also going through all these details now and see how it corresponds with the standards and obligations the. russian federation has undertaken now if you could comment on now on the words said by one of the russian m.p.'s will just the other day he accused pace of double standards according to pace he said in russia there should be no punishment for hooliganism no banned for four combining parliamentary functions and business which takes place in all european countries and also most countries in the world well really why this pace allow such a contradiction what is the expect russia to be true loyalists who are as they say

in france. no i am i have said that there. should not be any double standards in the council europe we do not target particular congress but we are looking at the standards that they have undertaken this is actually not the construct europe standards the noble occasions is these are the standards doubling of the member states that they have signed up to and we are using their monitoring bodies in order to find out whether they are complying with this standard so i mean all these details i will be able to go through. of the parliamentary assembly has. just adopted this report and of course i will look in to it mr young went to well although there is a lucian was pretty critical but we have to admit and also the russian delegation.

she went to work without missing the risk and it has admitted that this resolution it was it was a what while the best of all resolutions passed by the pace since russia joined the council of europe but if the most critical parts were not excluded do you think that it could significantly hamper the relations between russia and the council of could. such a thing happen. no i don't think that this will. be. the tourist relations between russia and council or europe on the contrary i believe that we are in a very good interaction with the thought of this involves. some of the new laws concerns me as well and we are looking into them now and see what we can do with them. so. not only focus on this report did this or course important

because it comes from a parliamentary assembly but the government decide over door of new organizations has all their bodies that also are watching the situation in november. which we also have to build upon so i'm in the relations between russia federation and consular if it's normal it's the same as we have it all the member states you know every time moscow is having problems with the with some european structures we see the same thing happening people politicians commentators news men start start accusing these structures and this time the pace of being nonfunctional of actually not passing any and your real decisions i mean and being being really irrelevant for world politics what would you what would you how would you comment on that do you think that pace wrists il has the real levers to influence the way the european

politics. absolutely i mean. the huge machinery that be having the constable europe in order to uphold the standards the lobby gauges in the member states are being respected and i have. taken all what's the point is for me said nabarro had said again and again that the russian federation to comply with the obligations that judicial obligations that they have undertaken. this is functioning quite well a few for instance look got just been coming from the fourth of human rights. these judgments are being taken very seriously in the direction federation and also the monitoring reports that start coming for from the commission for prevention of torture this is also being full of doubt by the russian authorities so i think it's absolute declared that. in the governmental side all this

cooperation up its functioning very well says i thought of your gavel and said to the general of the council your spotlight will be back shortly after we take a break so don't doubt we'll be back. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't i'm tom are welcome is a big. it

is beautiful the food. food. supply.

welcome back to spotlight just a reminder that my name is outgoing of and my guest on the show today is thought and we are in the yog land secretary general of the council of europe mr young and

we've just we've just talked about the latest pay session well now i'd like to ask you a couple of questions on the world situation on the international situation in which in which the pace is and the council of europe is and has always been and is an active participant well following the latest news we can't help but touch upon syria the problem was discussed in pace and you personally called upon the international community i quote to agree on the united and effective response to address this crisis and quote well you just before the break said that said that the council of europe does have the mechanisms to impose something well what do you mean what what should the council of europe response what should it be but we have to keep in mind here that syria is not a member of the contrary europe turkey is. nor course russia is many orders

so we are not directly involved in this. conflict although some of our member states are being affected by it so it is of course up to deceive purity council of the united nations to act. i think it's sort to say that there is no action at all and that's why we are calling on the security council to take a responsibility to and to have a united stand on what should happen in syria. and how is it going on i mean your relations with the security council your calls upon the international community to to try to resolve this guy what by the way you mentioned you mentioned turkey well the restraint that turkey has shown us you know the last couple of days is it a result of your call. no i wouldn't say that but

everybody can see what is happening on the ground. everybody can also see that there is no action at all from the so-called international community and i think it is because of this divide in the security council so i believe strongly that the security council should have a responsibility to act in a united way. and other questions about about connection with syria the syrian the syrian crisis has been dominating the strasburg of world forum for democracy too well were there any constructive proposals history has been made concerning syria. no unfortunately i do not see only for the time being and the constructive proposals hard to get out of told this crisis actually we are not dealing directly with it want to be what we are

discussing here is how we can help the emerging democracies project and in the solved mediterranean and the arab world and we are also discussing the challenges that have in the so-called establish democracy is. and they are many actually because we see that turnout is going down and young people are not only interested in taking part in political processes and longer they are more on the internet there are many challenges that be have in this so-called old world but there are also very happy to see that democracies are emerging outside in the neighborhood of europe so you hear this is interesting which you just mentioned that the internet is a one of the challenges to the to the old world did i get you right. yes in a way it is of course it is what we are at this thing is a kind of democratic station or information which is very good but at the same time

one can see that for instance young people as i said are not that interested in taking part in the. often very lengthy political processes going on in the political parties and parliaments they are more interested in being on social media i mean streets around face because it is so i mean the big question for this so-called representative democracy is that we have. is whether this represent the democracy can be reconciled been the more direct democracy that we are not be to seeing on the internet for instance. this is very interesting that you mention that because because another thing which which has been widely discussed is the outburst of protests in the muslim world that has recently been dominating the world media and started by the way in the internet it started because an american made film which way which was put on the internet well i piece

of trash actually but some europeans also joined the course and bring the muslims and this piece of trash was put on the net in one part of the world and in the other part of the world people went and killed the american ambassador then they try to to do the same with frenchmen i believe i well actually i do believe in freedom of expression but is there a way to the both preserve the basic values and not to offend and not to. make people killed because of our basic values yes this example is. demonstrating that there are advantages as surveillance this is with the new for. information that is going on on the internet but i don't see that we can be regulated by laws of course there are laws in many most countries that for instance.

you are not allowed to. do for incitement for violence for instance but all in all i think that freedom of expression is about discussion and three discussion and you cannot regulate away that so so so you think that the internet should not be regulated it should be as free as it is. because when we say when we say free as it is when practically no practically no limits practically no laws i mean i mean whatever well there are some limits already in most countries which most countries. do but i'm a very very afraid or having more regulations on the internet because it can be misused by all sort of tyrion regimes in order also to do

a baby with information that is absolutely needed in a society it's all one thing is to stop for instance pornography child program pornography on the internet but another thing is to stop. political discussion well can i ask you one question just on a personal level yes well this film about the innocence of muslims it was banned by at least two russian ports it was banned it was pronounced pronounced extremist and there was a court decision to take it off to take it out of the internet do you think that was the right thing to do that was a wise thing to do for a country with a huge muslim population as russia has. well i do not want to have a position on that i think it does it is up to do a rational thought to do is to have a decision on this there are different practices in different countries what i'm

talking against is to have a big amount of regulations on the internet i do not think it leads in the opposite. it doesn't lead in the right direction i would say well what is this problem i mean the problem of freedom of expression freedom of press and not hampering the rights of other people because if there were limits for that freedom why these things are discussed lately in any of the council of europe institutions. yes we have. discussed this several times and of course freedom of expression is the basic raw you in any democracy and of course in the european convention for human rights. but there are. also in national laws some great relations for instance.

when it comes to incitement to violence. you cannot. i mean you are not allowed to . have propaganda for racism in many countries so there are certain limits on freedom of expression. but i'm pretty going too far because it can be misused by all sort of. regimes. absolutely and as a matter of fact this this was mentioned at the world forum for democracy which were already mentioned well well actually this forum it is it welcomed a lot of world's most influential leaders lately and the un secretary-general spoke at the forum but in your opinion does the forum have any any decision making potential what is just like they recommend being people to the right things. no we are not really not to make decisions here but it is important for room

where political leaders can meet in particular with young people the emerging voices in the world which i call them. you can see them on the internet so that is a good sign on the internet. many of the famous bloggers in the world are here so it's a good meeting place to be in leaders. the emerging new voices in over the world today and the last question i'd like to ask you about the nobel committee this year the nobel prize winners will receive two million chrono or less than usual and the nobel foundation says it's needed to secure the future prizes as the chairman of the nobel committee can you say does it mean the nobel foundation is going through financial troubles today is it true. well. i'm not the

right person to be asked about that because you know of the nobel. foundation is located in stockholm it's a swedish thing but the ultra nobel said that the nobel peace prize should be awarded in norway so we are all responsible for the peace prize but it is true that . they. do not both foundation has been reduced because of the global economic crisis so they have to adapt to that reality it's a matter of fact one of the russian radio station been nominated for the piece they have planned this please thank you thank you very much and just a reminder that my guest today was part of the yard line the general secretary of the council of europe and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say and spotlight perhaps some of the mine who you think i stand for the next time just drop a line of how we're now at our city that area and that's the spot light interact. we'll be back with more firsthand common thought of what's going on in and outside

russia until then stay on r.t. and take care. of. her. i mean so to know your city in europe on the hosts of the twenty fourteen which are the pictures. sunset. thank you. so much. thank you for the. way a. dog days are gone and the pride days it. makes common. to see it's so true.

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