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Editor's note: The article was expanded after PACE published its resolution.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) table office 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 resolution on "Europe's Commitment to a Just and Lasting Peace in Ukraine," European Pravda reported earlier the same day.
Following the public outcry, PACE included a mention of Putin in the published resolution but without labeling him a terrorist.
The resulting document refers to "Vladimir Putin's totalitarian regime and its war on democracy, as well as the necessity to counter the erasure of cultural identity in war and peace; it believes that a lasting peace is only possible if the Russian Federation abandons its imperial ambitions and performs decolonization."
PACE's table office explained its initial decision to reject the amendment in full 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.
