The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) claims that after the war it will be necessary to decide how to interact with Russia, but it will have to prove that it can be trusted.
This was stated by the PACE president in an interview with "European Truth".
According to Cox, the aggressive war made it clear that Russia is not a democracy, but an authoritarian regime that intimidates its neighbors and even attacks them.
"But when the war ends, we will have to decide how we will interact with Russia. Because Russia will not go anywhere. Russia has millions of citizens who also deserve to be protected through the mechanisms of the Council of Europe," he said.
But, the PACE president noted, it is impossible to talk about justice until there is accountability.
"That is why, first of all, Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Russia must admit that it has violated its obligations and must compensate for the damage it has caused. And Russia must also prove to us that it can be trusted in the future," said Cox.
In his opinion, if you simply stop the war and Russia waits for an opportunity to attack again, then this is not a stable solution.
"It is also extremely important that changes begin in Russia itself. The current regime, which started the war against Ukraine, is not the regime that we will trust. Of course, its change is the business of Russian citizens. But only under this condition, I see a chance that Russia will return to international law," the head of PACE said.
For example, he recalled that after the Second World War there was the Nuremberg trial, and after it it was possible to turn the fascist state, which was Germany under the leadership of the Nazis, into one of the leading democracies of Europe in a rather short time.
"It will be more difficult to achieve this here, because Russia has never been a democracy," Tiny Cox admitted at the same time.
