Moscow, March 5 (Xinhua) Moscow has asked the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to rule whether decisions being made by Ukraine's parliament are legitimate, a top Russian legislator said Wednesday.
'We sent a request to the Venice Commission via the PACE's judicial committee over legitimacy of the decisions being made (by Ukraine's Supreme Rada),' Xinhua quoted Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker Sergei Naryshkin as telling a meeting of the Duma's working group.
The group was asked to analyse the legal status of legislations passed recently by the Supreme Rada.
The Venice Commission, also known as the European Commission for Democracy Through Law, was created in 1990 with the primary task of assisting and advising individual countries on constitutional matters in order to improve the functioning of democratic institutions and the protection of human rights.
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According to Naryshkin, the political crisis in Ukraine has been deepening because that country lacks a political force capable of representing the interests of all people in all Ukraine's regions.
He noted some Rada members had been working amid concerns over their safety and immunity.
'Obviously, some of them vote under pressure, which affects the legitimacy of the Rada's decisions as a whole,' Naryshkin said, adding that, although the Duma could not interfere in its Ukrainian colleagues' work, it could give 'professional advice' to them.
He stressed that Russian and Ukrainian legislators worked in the same legal field and any hasty changes to the Ukrainian constitution could jeopardise that country's stability and welfare.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow did not recognise the legitimacy of the new authorities in Kiev and believed Viktor Yanukovych remained Ukraine's lawful president who had been ousted by an unconstitutional coup.