The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament confirmed Monday, January 18 that Russia would skip the upcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Sputnik International reports.

"We are not going in January for sure," Sergei Naryshkin told reporters.

Also on Monday, Alexei Pushkov, the long-time head of Russia’s delegation and chief of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, said the country’s participation in the PACE sessions would make sense only if it had the possibility to influence the decision-making process.

"Russia's participation in PACE is justified if it is possible to influence the results of voting and decision-making. Passive presence is meaningless," Pushkov wrote on Twitter.