Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says Russia's return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) undermines the organization's authority.
"I think this undermines the authority of that organization," he told Žinių Radijas on Tuesday after PACE decided to restore Russia's voting rights which had been restricted in the wake of Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
"Russia has not done anything to implement the PACE resolutions 1990 (2014) and 2034 (2015) by which PACE condemned the annexation of Crimea and violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Lithuanian MFA said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
MFA further condemns Russia's continuing actions against Ukraine, while also noting that Russian delegation to PACE includes parliamentarians "who actively contributed to the annexation of Crimea".
According to Linkevičius, Russia's return to the assembly looks "rather strange and, to tell the truth, controversial", given that Moscow has not changed its behavior.
