ON THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE…

The chairman of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, Vladimir Lukin, said that he will recommend that President Boris Yeltsin withdraw the Russian request to join the Council of Europe, and will ask that his Duma colleagues boycott the Council’s sessions. Lukin said that he took this position because of the Council’s "discriminatory attitude" in considering Russia’s candidacy for admission to the organization. Lukin charged that other countries, such as Ukraine, are being accepted into the Council on very favorable terms without having adopted a new democratic constitution; and that Croatia has been accepted despite being "implicated in war crimes" while Russia’s application to join the council was denied because of the war in Chechnya. While the Council is remarkably tolerant of other nations’ imperfections, observed Lukin, it requires complete perfection from Russia as a prerequisite for admission. (2)

On the Partnership for Peace.