KIEV (Sputnik) — On December 7, Savchenko visited the Belarusian capital to meet representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas. The meeting in Minsk has caused a political scandal in Ukraine and Savchenko, who is a member of the parliament, has been excluded from her party.
The decision to exclude Savchenko from the delegation to PACE was supported by 237 lawmakers, which was 11 more than 226 votes required.
According to the decision, Savchenko's membership in the delegation has allegedly contributed to her release from custody in Russia, and there are no grounds for such membership at the moment.
As a result of Ukraine’s October 2014 parliamentary elections, Savchenko became a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Batkivshchyna Party and was elected a member of the Rada’s permanent delegation to the PACE.
Savchenko had been detained in Russia since mid-2014 over her suspected role in the killing of two Russian journalists who were covering the Ukrainian conflict. In late May 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon the Ukrainian national.
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