MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia was accepted into the Council of Europe, a regional intergovernmental organization, on February 28, 1996.
"For Russia, this is a remarkable date. Major and serious efforts have been made by the twentieth anniversary of [Russia's] membership of the Council of Europe," Andrei Kelin said.
The fact that Moscow has ratified 60 major Council of Europe's legal instruments allows to establish "the community, the humanitarian space free of dividing lines, in which more than 800 million people live," the Russian diplomat added.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland has said in a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the last 20 years of cooperation would help in finding "agreeable solutions" to difficult issues and points of disagreements.
