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#Thread Let me tell you why the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s decision to re-admit Russia will prove to be an own-goal and why those who voted in favour have made a fatal error of judgement. 
Your claims that Russia belongs to the CoE with all the rights & obligations this confers is self-defeating. The hallmark of the Kremlin is that it actively chooses to operate outside the norms of international law, whatever the forum and whatever the rules or rulings.
Remember the aggression against Georgia and Ukraine? 13,000 dead and counting. Vetoing and obstruction of the investigation into #MH17? The #Salisbury attack as well as election meddling around the world? Are memories so short?
The irony is that bringing Russia back into PACE is in fact a body blow for #humanrights and civil society in Russia itself. The Kremlin laughs in the face of human rights and is in the final stages of dismantling the last remnants of its civil society.
Today’s kleptocratic and criminal Kremlin regime will never recognise, value or protect the core values we understand as European values. It despises democracy, equality and human rights and sees these as the Achilles Heel of a decadent and decaying West.
It understands power, aggression and bully-boy tactics as a tool to restore its Soviet glory and supremacy. A position of strength is the only counter to this – not appeasement.
But the profound naivety demonstrated by those who have crumpled in the face of Russian lobbying risks paving the way towards ever greater acts of appeasement. European history should offer the starkest reminder of what appeasement eventually leads to.
Yet as we see, memories are short. It is, indeed, a dark day for ‘European values’.
But we in Ukraine - with our government, parliament, the Ukrainian army and a vibrant Ukrainian civil society will continue fighting on the front line for freedom and for these values. #ValuesAreNotForSale
