A draft report by the monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) on the honoring of obligations and commitments by Russia, which was published on June 3, calls on Moscow to constructively contribute to the resolution of issues related with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

“With regards to treating neighbouring and other countries in the region as zones of special influence, [the PACE urges Russia to] constructively contribute to the resolution of open issues and cease activities such as the issuing of Russian passports to inhabitants of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which may – directly or indirectly – undermine these countries' sovereignty and territorial [integrety],” the draft resolution reads.

The document also calls on Russia “to cooperate with the Georgian authorities in order to create conditions for the voluntary return of Meskhetian Turks to the regions from which they were forcefully deported” in 1944.

The report also says that over the last three years Russia has made little progress regarding its outstanding commitments as a Council of Europe member state. The draft resolution will be debated at the PACE summer session in Strasbourg in late June.