The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has recognized the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of influence for official Moscow and propaganda. This was documented in their resolution, which also called for the recognition of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, as illegitimate.
Member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, Ukrainian MP Yevheniia Kravchuk, reported that the Assembly pointed out that Putin's regime espouses a neo-imperial ideology of the "Russian peace," which the Kremlin has turned into an instrument for fueling war. The hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church upholds this ideology, declaring war against Ukraine and the "satanic" West as a "holy war of all Russians."
The resolution adopted by PACE regarding the death of Alexei Navalny has been successfully transformed into another powerful document supporting Ukraine and condemning Putin's aggression. Assembly members passed a resolution titled "The Death of Alexei Navalny and the Necessity to Counter Vladimir Putin's Totalitarian Regime and His War against Democracy." The Assembly called for the official recognition of Putin's illegitimacy as President of the Russian Federation and for recognizing the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda, which has nothing to do with freedom of religion and expression.
Kravchuk emphasized that the resolution underscores that since coming to power, Putin has been building a regime whose goal is to wage war against democracy and disrupt the European and global order established after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
The Assembly once again confirmed that under Putin, the Russian Federation has become a de facto dictatorship. The document notes that Putin has been in power continuously since 2000, and amendments to the Russian Constitution adopted in July 2020 and recognized as illegitimate by the Venice Commission and the Assembly allow him to remain in office until 2036.
Kravchuk also noted that PACE called on EU member states to strengthen sanctions against Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and against Lukashenko's regime in Belarus.
In addition, according to the Ukrainian MP, the resolution calls on member states to create an international mechanism for compensating victims of Russian aggression against Ukraine, to which frozen Russian assets must be immediately transferred, as well as a special tribunal to investigate the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
The resolution calls on states to ensure that Russia is held accountable for systematically using torture and other forms of cruel treatment, which thousands of prisoners in Russia, including Ukrainian political prisoners illegally detained in Russian prisons since 2014, as well as Ukrainian prisoners of war, have suffered.
"Furthermore, the Assembly emphasized that according to international humanitarian law, Russian oil refineries should be considered legitimate targets of military attacks," Kravchuk added.
