Press secretary for President Putin, Dmitry Peskov, commented on PACE's adoption of a tough resolution on Russia, and said that the Kremlin does not consider PACE's recommendation 'to democratize the Russian system of power' appropriate and does not intend to listen, reports Interfax.

"We do not believe that such statements and calls are appropriate and, of course, we will not heed them," said Peskov.

On Tuesday PACE parliamentarians adopted a resolution stating that Russia has not formally abolished the death penalty and has not fulfilled an earlier resolution over the "war between Russia and Georgia." In addition, the newly passed resolution contained appeals "not to strengthen the authoritarian nature of the system, and instead democratize."
PACE also gave the Russian government several recommendations including: "give a guarantee that the merger of the state and the ruling party can be avoided," "restore full a political dialogue with the opposition that is not represented in the State Duma," release the jailed Pussy Riot punk band members, and restore the parliamentary mandate to 'oppositionist' Gennady Gudkov.

However, regardless of the current claims of the Council of Europe, PACE did not resolve to increase the level of monitoring Russia to the level of the Committee of Ministers.

It should be noted that instead of the State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, the Russian delegation was headed by the chairman of the Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alexei Pushkov. Naryshkin refused to go to Strasbourg, saying that his "strategic proposals were unlikely to be heard by a number of leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly and a number of leaders Russophobic delegations."