(VOVworld) - The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has decided to extend its sanctions against the Russian delegation and strip it of the right to vote and be represented in the Assembly’s governing bodies until April 2015.

A working session of The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Photo: RIA Novosti)

Russian delegation Head Alexei Pushkov said following PACE’s decision that Moscow is suspending its participation in PACE until the end of the year.

The sanction came amid increasing tension in eastern Ukraine after PACE’s call for the release of Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Saychenko was refused by Russia.

Russia’s dialogue with PACE was suspended in April last year following Crimea’s reunification with Russia when the assembly stripped Russia of voting rights until January 2015 and suspended its right to be represented in the assembly’s governing bodies or to participate in election observation missions.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday that any new Western sanctions against Russia for its role in Ukraine would be senseless and harmful.