Russia could face punishment at the Council of Europe on Thursday over its annexation of Crimea.<br /><br />Europe’s top human rights watchdog will decide whether Moscow should lose its voting rights.<br /><br />Members said its actions in Crimea go against the body’s key values.<br /><br />“The strongest weapon of parliamentarians is to keep talking, to stay in dialogue, but also to say very openly to a member you did something we can not accept, so you get the yellow card,” said Stefan Schennach, an Austrian centre-left MP<br /><br />Russia joined the Council of Europe in 1996.<br /><br />In Moscow officials argue that Crimea’s referendum to join Russia was entirely legal.<br /><br />“I am sure that we will be able this year to convince many of our colleagues that the referendum in Crimea was conducted in accordance with international law and it was a free expression of peoples’ will,” said Russian MP Leonid Slutsky.<br /><br />But a non-binding resolution passed by the UN General Assembly and supported by 100 countries called the vote “invalid”.<br /><br />Only 11 nations backed Russia’s stance. Fifty-eight abstained.
