GERMAN CHAIRMANSHIP OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE DISAPPOINTING: RUSSIA

Shortly before the end of Germany's presidency of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, Russia has expressed "disappointment" with Berlin's role, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Germany had not been the chair of a pan-European organization for six months, but a flagship of anti-Russian forces, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow this week, according to the state news agency TASS.

Attacks on Russia had been organized, Zakharova claimed, giving as an example recent statements by the Committee of Ministers under Foreign Minister Heiko Maas that the human rights situation on the Crimean peninsula had deteriorated decisively since Moscow's "illegal annexation."

The relationship between Berlin and Moscow is icier than it has been for a long time. Russia considers itself unjustly held responsible for the attack on dissident Alexei Navalny, for the murder of a Georgian in Berlin and for the hacker attack on the German Bundestag in 2015.

The Council of Europe, based in the French city of Strasbourg, works together with its Court of Justice to uphold human rights in its 47 member states. It is not an organ of the European Union (EU). The Committee of Ministers consists of the foreign ministers of the 47 countries. It is in this body that the Council of Europe's policy is determined. Germany took over the chairmanship in November.

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