"A team is already drafting the convention, and we hope it will be adopted quite soon," he said as a Duma group was in conference today with Terry Davis, Council of Europe Secretary General.
Mr. Kosachev called the CE to enhance the balance of its policies. Meanwhile, it is focusing efforts on compliance with human rights, while the international terrorist advance has been left in the margins, the parliamentarian pointed out to a media audience.
The Council of Europe ought to balance out its activities, and pay greater attention to security issues, he emphatically added.
As Mr. Davis was summing up the conference for newsmen, in his turn, he said the Parties had discussed a wide range of essential issues-in particular, Chechen developments and Russian relations with the post-Soviet Baltic countries. The CE Secretary General insistently appealed to Russia to comply with all its pledges.
No one is imposing stringent conditions on Russia, he reassured. Democratic freedoms and human rights are among its developmental priorities.