PACE Denunciation of Putin’s War in Ukraine in Two Ways like Its 1960 Denunciation of Soviet Occupation of Baltic States, Zingeris Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 24 –The resolution the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine recalls a similar denunciation by PACE of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries on the 20^th anniversary of that crime, Emanuelis Zingeris says. Like the first, the second was passed unanimously and sets the stage for change.

            The Lithuanian parliamentarian who was one of the co-authors of the recent resolution says that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is what it has been doing to the national minorities within its current borders who as yet do not have their own statehood. The two are interconnected and both must be denounced (idelreal.org/a/32089807.html).

            Moscow’s disproportionate use of non-Russians as combatants in Ukraine is an international policy, one designed to preclude future anti-Moscow movements by destroying those who may adopt an agenda to separate from the Russian Federation, Zingeris says. It did this in Soviet times, and it is doing it again.

            The powers that be in the Russian capital know on the basis of experience that when the center weakens, such centrifugal forces will strengthen and become a threat to the center.

            It is no accident that PACE is raising these issues, Zingeris says. Europeans recognize that diversity is the basis of the European project; and consequently, it does not accept the idea that only titular nationalities have rights and that all others must subordinate themselves to such nations. PACE is based on that principle.

            To achieve those ends, PACE will promote the adoption of analogous resolutions by national parliaments among its members and the convention of an international tribunal on Ukraine. Some countries are already moving to adopt such texts, and more than ten are now in support of the creation of a tribunal.