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Tuesday 7 October 2008

Putin’s Tories: welcome to the Vlad and Dave Show

Denis MacShane says that the Conservatives’ refusal to align themselves with other centre-right parties on the Council of Europe has driven them into a shabby alliance with Russia

However, the Cameron–Hague rejection of co-operation with the European right can be seen in operation at the Council of Europe. Tory delegates refuse to sit down with other EU centre-right parties. Instead, they have formed their own little group with the Kremlin’s men from Putin’s United Russia party. There are 27 United Russia delegates and 11 Tories but the Russians have given the Conservatives the posts of honorary chair, first vice-chair and political officer or whip. In exchange, the Tories back the Kremlin line on Balkans’ policy and in other areas dear to Russia, which uses the Council of Europe to attack Georgia, the Baltic states, as well as Nato’s proposed missile-defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Since joining in 1996, the Russians have given repeated assurances that they would respect Council of Europe rulings on Chechnya, Moldova, and above all on allowing Russian citizens to take cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Moscow has reneged on all these pledges. In December, a Russian chairman of a key committee broke the rules of neutral chairmanship himself to vote in support of the pro-Kremlin and anti-EU line on Kosovo. He was backed by the Tory MPs present.

And now the Tories have agreed to support a top Kremlin aide to become the president of the Council of Europe. As at the UN or the European parliament, there is a kind of Buggins’s turn rule on who holds rotating posts like assembly presidencies. As a formal parliamentary group at the Council of Europe, the Conservatives and the Russians are entitled to nominate the next president, who holds office for three years. There has been a revolt, led by Nordic and Baltic conservatives against this Russian takeover. So far, Tory MPs have stayed true to their alliance with the Kremlin rather than join up with right-wingers from other countries who are clearer-sighted about what Russia is up to.

All this would be small-time politicking on a faraway European body that few know much about. But the current furore at the Council of Europe reflects how Russia is playing by its own, old rules in international organisations. And how the Cameron–Hague hostility to Europe has not only made the Conservative party an isolated force in Europe but has led Tory MPs to keep surely the oddest international company in their party’s history.

More articles from: Denis MacShane | this section

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