The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) also urged EU member states to “cease all contact with Russia”, except for humanitarian cooperation and working towards peace.
"The overwhelming power of the President resulting from the extremely long term in office combined with the lack of any checks and balances such as a strong parliament, an independent judiciary, free media and a vibrant civil society has turned the Russian Federation into a de facto dictatorship,” the parliamentarians say.
Yes, and we continue to talk to those dictatorships anyway. That is the point of diplomacy. It’s the alternative to war. IMO it is a terrible idea to “cease all contact” with a foreign government, however awful it may be. But I assume diplomacy is excluded from their idea, despite the rhetoric.
Putin has made it clear that diplomacy is not an option with him. Same thing with North Korea, they pretend that they’re open to discussions to keep everyone placated for as long as they can and then they just do whatever they want anyway
Yup. This is an important point. Diplomacy as a stalling tactic is a very old playbook.