Russian MPs to wait for official invitation to visit U.S. - Slutsky
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - State Duma members will wait for an official invitation from their U.S. counterparts to visit Washington, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky said.
"Today the U.S. Ambassador to Russia [Jon] Huntsman said that one could, without exaggeration, call this day historic. In my view, there is an element of pomposity to that. Though Senator [Richard] Shelby, the head of the [Congress] delegation, invited State Duma deputies to Washington for talks in Congress, we will wait for an official invitation," Slutsky said.
"We won't be jumping out of our pants just because of what was said, as it may simply have been a tribute of some sort of respect to colleagues in the Russian parliament and a thanks for the hospitality. We'll wait," he said.
Russian deputies hope that the "period of alienation" in the two countries' inter-parliamentary contact will be over, he said. "This is the first delegation, the first signals of some sort, but I think it would be wrong for us to draw any conclusions on the basis of the claims and even invitations that were made here," Slutsky said.