Kanerva writes to Mogherini on unacceptability of restrictions of Russian parliamentarians' intl contacts - Russian delegation
ULAANBAATAR. Sept 16 (Interfax) - OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva has communicated to the EU administration the concerns of his colleagues from national delegations on the issue of the sanctions against Russian parliamentarians which prevented them from attending important OSCE events, Nikolai Kovalev, a member of the Russian delegation and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Anti-Terrorism (United Russia faction), said.
"Kanerva has sent a letter to [High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] Federica Mogherini on the unacceptability of a situation when Russian parliamentarians are limited in international events organized by the OSCE PA," Kovalev told reporters at the fall session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held in Ulaanbaatar on Wednesday.
He said Kanerva had said this today to Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, who now leads the Russian delegation in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session, which is being held in Mongolia on September 15-18.
"For this reason, we are waiting for an appropriate reaction," Kovalev said.
He recalled that the Finnish Foreign Ministry had denied entry to the country to the summer session OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to Naryshkin and another five members of the Russian delegation due to Western sanctions against them. The Russian delegation responded by refusing to go to Helsinki. Soon afterwards, the U.S. administration prevented Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko from attending a conference of the Interparliamentary Union by issuing her a restricted visa, the parliamentarian said.
He said that this policy against Russian parliamentarians was opposed by many members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and that some fifty of them signed a petition calling for the restrictions to be lifted. "We had a lot of support from the Germans, the French, the Italians, and the parliamentarians from Cyprus and Greece," Kovalev said.
Kovalev said that Russia will closely follow the EU's response. "We will, of course, raise this issue again," he said.