MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Moscow expects that Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposals on settling the conflict in Ukraine will be used during a session of the contact group for Ukraine in Minsk on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We hope that the conflicting parties will use these ideas and try to reach an agreement during the contact group session," Lavrov said at a meeting with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland in Moscow on Thursday.
Moscow is trying to make its contribution to efforts to start a dialogue between Kyiv and the southeastern part of Ukraine, Lavrov said. "The Council of Europe can and should play a constructive role at this difficult time," he said.
Lavrov insisted that decisions made by the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the UN Security Council should be implemented fully. "This concerns investigations into all crimes and all incidents that have taken place on Maidan [in Kyiv], the tragedy in Odesa, the Boeing crash, a ceasefire, and the normalization of dialogue," he said.
The Council of Europe's and the OSCE's principles have lacked respect and fallen victim to double standards as of late, he said.
"As long as we don't abandon attempts to perpetuate the dividing lines in Europe, we will face challenges like the current one from time to time," he said.
Jagland said in response that the conflict in Ukraine is a very important challenge to all European institutions, including the Council of Europe, as they were founded following WWII and the Statute of the Council of Europe says that the member-states have to prevent armed conflicts using peaceful methods.
The Council of Europe attaches special significance to the protection of the rights of the people who suffer in the Ukrainian conflict, as their rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights have been systematically violated, he said.
Lavrov agreed that the European institutions are experiencing a crisis now. "We have a crisis of European institutions. We are convinced that high principles that were put in the foundation of the OSCE and the Council of Europe are not fully respected and fall victim to double standards," he said.