In an interview early this year, Terry Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said Mikhail Margelov, who heads the foreign affairs committee at the upper house of Russia's parliament, could chair the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) next year.
Margelov, 43, also heads the European Democrat Group, PACE's largest, which will hold the rotating presidency next year.
"Next year, a Russian [parliamentarian] could hold the PACE chairman's post for the first time in the organization's history," the Russian senator said. "I will be running for the post."
Margelov said he would seek Russia's ratifying protocols 6 and 14 of the European Convention on human rights and freedoms, those on abolishing capital punishment and reforming the European court.
"Another one of PACE's goal that I can see is to keep promoting European values that do not discriminate against the peculiarity of any member country of the Council of Europe," the Russian parliamentarian said. "The dialogue between religions and cultures is also significant to Europe and the whole world."
Margelov was elected to represent the Pskov Region in northwestern Russia in the Federation Council in December 2000, and he has been chairman of the house's foreign affairs committee since November 2001.
