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Russian, Ukrainian parliaments to hold open debates on relations

According to Russian State Duma lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, all issues of Russian-Ukrainian relations will be on the agenda of the conference

MOSCOW, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian State Duma lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said Russia and Ukraine will hold a conference on June 25 to focus on prospects for Eurasian integration.

The conference will be chaired by State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin and involve the leaders of all Duma factions, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for the CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots said on Monday.

This event has become a response to the address by Ukrainian deputies, outstanding scientists and politicians to hold open parliamentary debates on relationship between the two countries, Slutsky said.

The letter has been signed by head of the Party of Region faction to the Ukrainian parliament Alexander Yefremov and President of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Boris Paton, he said.

“Sometimes Ukraine and Russia face a crisis of confidence. The level and contents of cooperation decline. This factor has a negative impact on our states and the brotherly peoples,” the address says.

“The efforts aimed at cardinally improving Ukrainian-Russian relations, giving a new impetus to them and freeing of allusions, which run count the states’ national interests, are the imperative of our times, the duty of statesmen and political figures, parliaments and the public,” the address says.

According to Slutsky, all issues of Russian-Ukrainian relations will be on the agenda of the conference, including “prospects for Ukraine’s participation in the Eurasian integration project, as well as industrial and scientific cooperation”.

“This is the landmark event for Russian-Ukrainian relations, primarily at the parliamentary level,” Slutsky said.