The division of Europe, which had lasted for more than 40 years, effectively came to an end when Mikhail Gorbachev, as President of the Soviet Union, told us in Strasbourg in July 1989 that the Council of Europe is "our common European home" to which one day the Soviet Union might belong.

In response to the commitment to reform, we offered the Soviet Union "special guest status" to our organisation.

I was appointed co-rapporteur with a German colleague, Rudolph Bindig. Our task was to advise and assist the country, subsequently the Russian Federation, towards implementing our standards of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

In January 1996 Russia joined the Council of Europe. The vote was close. It was only achieved as a result of my proposal (Order 516) to establish a mechanism to monitor the situation in Chechnya that was separate to the procedure which monitors the commitments it would make upon accession.

The history of Russia since then and of Europe would have been quite different if we had kept Russia out at that time.

On April 26, 2004 I reported to the Council of Europe the progress Russia has made towards meeting our standards. I also listed what more needs to be done before we can recommend an end to its monitoring.

The currency is stable and the economy is growing. Foreign investment is increasing. Land can be brought and sold. Pensions are being paid and food queues are a distant memory. Institutional reform is progressing, albeit slowly.

However, we are concerned about the influence of the General Prosecutor's office on the judiciary and we need to be convinced that judges and juries are truly independent.

On the federal security services, the FSB, which succeeded the KGB, must be brought into line with European standards. The judiciary and parliament should have oversight of the General Prosecutor, not the other way around.

We welcome the  continuing moratorium on the death penalty, despite pressure from the Duma. However, it remains to be abolished. We are impressed by the work of the former Commissioner of Human Rights, the ombudsman, Mr Mironov. We welcome the appointment of his successor, our former colleague, Mr Lukin. We wish to see ombudsmen appointed in all of Russia’s 89 regions.

A law providing a civil alternative to military conscription has been introduced. However, since it lasts for three and a half years and remains under military control, it is unacceptable.

Of course, as long as conscription remains, so will the ill-treatment of young conscripts, leading to many hundreds - perhaps thousands - of deaths, including suicides, every year. The Assembly has called for effective and urgent action on that.

Mr Bindig and I visited prisons and detention centres in Khaborosk and Vladivostok last November and we cannot ignore the reports of the Committee on the Prevention of Torture. We urge Russia to show the necessary resolve to introduce civilised  conditions, however unpopular that might prove.

Protocol Six to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter for Regional Minority Languages have been signed but not ratified. The European Social Charter and the Convention on Transfer of Sentenced Persons have not yet been signed.

The removal of the 14th Russian Army, including its weaponry and ammunition, from Moldova has been further postponed. Issues concerning compensation for those deported to Siberia from the Baltic states and on the return of property remain outstanding.

Russia and Georgia must allow the Meskhetian Turks to be repatriated and the minimum rights to which they are entitled in the meantime should be respected. Now that the Salvation Army has been allowed to resume its valuable work on the streets of Moscow, we call for the same freedom for Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Outstanding issues remain concerning the return of property to the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church's hostility to a papal visit to Russia.

We recognise the commitment of President Putin, following his re-election, to strengthening the institutions of democracy and to developing a genuine multi-party system.

However, we cannot ignore our conclusions arising from observing the parliamentary elections in December, and the presidential election in March, that Russia must cease to threaten censorship of the press and must put in place a public broadcasting system that is impartial, objective and free of state influence and control.

Mr Bindig and I will visit further regions in Russia later this year, as well as Moscow, in order to complete our next progress report to the Assembly.

I hope that what we said in Strasbourg on April 26 will encourage the new Russian Government to respond quickly to our concerns and to enable us to tell the Assembly that its commitments have been fulfilled.

Then, and only then, will Russia have truly joined our common European Home.

David Atkinson is Conservative MP for Bournemouth East and is the Council of Europe's rapporteur on Russia.