1 OSCE PA may adjust session agenda due to absence of Russian delegation - spokesman
MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - A decision of the Russian delegation not to attend the summer session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly due to the denial of travel of State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and another few deputies to Finland may lead to adjustment of the session agenda.
"The Russian absence during the session may change the items on the agenda," OSCE PA spokesman Richard Solash told Interfax in an interview.
Solash noted that Russia had proposed a number of amendments and additions which were planned to be discussed during the session.
"Documents and amendments require certain number of signature from certain number of countries to be valid for the consideration during at the assembly, obviously the fact that the Russian delegation will not participate may affect which items might be able to be considered," Solash said.
He did not disclose content of the documents proposed by the Russian side.
According to Solash, Assembly members are trying to consider which items of their agenda would have to be revised.
As reported earlier, the Finnish Foreign Ministry had banned the travel of State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and some other parliamentarians who fall under the EU sanctions to the summer session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Naryshkin responded to the ban by saying that the Russian delegation would take no part in the session.
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly reported previously that a draft resolution on the inadmissibility of the use of sanctions against parliamentarians of OSCE participating states had been presented for consideration of the Helsinki session.
An OSCE PA press release posted on Wednesday said "Sergei Naryshkin, the Chairperson of the Russian State Duma and Head of the Russian Delegation to the OSCE PA, is the principal sponsor of the draft supplementary resolution titled "The Inadmissibility of the Use of Sanctions against Parliamentarians of the OSCE Participating States"."
The item "considers that the use by OSCE participating States of unilateral sanctions as a means of forcing another participating State to change its foreign and/or domestic policy cannot serve as an effective way of resolving conflicts" and calls on OSCE participating States to refuse to apply such sanctions, the press release said.
It said a draft resolution regarding Russia's actions towards Ukraine had also been submitted for consideration of session participants.
"Principally sponsored by Dean Allison, the Head of Canada's Delegation to the OSCE PA, the item "condemns the Russian Federation's unilateral and unjustified assault on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and calls on Russia to cease material and other support for illegal armed groups in Donetsk and Luhansk," the press release said.
The item is an extension of a similar Supplementary Resolution approved at the 2014 OSCE PA Annual Session in Baku, it noted.
"The nearly 300 OSCE parliamentarians in attendance in Helsinki will also consider the special draft supplementary resolution "Helsinki +40: Building the OSCE of the Future"," the press release said, adding that the item offered concrete reform proposals for the OSCE.