15/03/2018 (Agence Europe) – Russia has not invited the Council of Europe (CoE) to join the observers of the presidential election to be held in the country on Sunday 16 March, but it has asked for two members of the CoE’s parliamentary assembly (PACE), Spaniards Pedro Agramunt and Jordi Xuclà. Formerly president of PACE, Agramunt was forced to resign after meeting Bashar al-Assad during a trip to Syria in a private Russian plane without informing PACE (see EUROPE 11878). Xuclà was on the same trip. Still a member of the CoE, Russia suspended its budget involvement in the Council of Europe in June 2017 and has been boycotting the parliamentary assembly since April 2014. These retaliatory measures were decided after the voting rights were withdrawn from the Russian delegation at PACE in reaction to the annexation of Crimea. (VL)