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Russian State Duma speaker not to attend PACE session

“I believe it would be expedient for me to speak at a PACE session when the situation is right,” he told journalists

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, September 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergei Naryshkin said on Thursday he was not going to attend a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

“I believe it would be expedient for me to speak at a PACE session when the situation is right,” he told journalists. “Once I was pleased to accept an invitation to deliver a speech at a PACE session and was preparing to speak about big problems in the development of parliamentarism in Europe, about forming a frontier-free Europe. But as the session opening was nearing we felt that my big strategic proposals were unlikely to be heard by a number of Parliamentary Assembly leaders and some Russophobic delegations.”

“It looks like they are more interested in something else,” he stressed.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is expected to hear a report of Andreas Gross of Switzerland and Giorgi Frunda of Romania about Russia’s fulfillment of its liabilities as a Council of Europe member. According to media reports, a draft resolution calls to continue PACE monitoring of Russia over Europe’s claims to its foreign policy and the human rights situation.

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