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Anti-Russian sanctions

Russia will raise issue of sanctions against lawmakers at OSCE PA session

Signatures of European officials will be collected on the impermissibility of imposing sanctions

Speakers of both chambers of the Russian parliament, Sergey Naryshkin and Valentina Matviyenko Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma press service

Speakers of both chambers of the Russian parliament, Sergey Naryshkin and Valentina Matviyenko

© Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma press service

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. The Russian delegation will raise the issue of impermissibility of imposing sanctions against parliamentarians at the PA OSCE (Parliamentary Assembly of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) session in Mongolia, the delegation’s member Nikolay Kovalev said on Monday.

"We will raise this issue in the framework of bilateral meetings. A meeting is planned between PA OSCE Chairman Ilkka Kanerva and State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin and hopefully, other delegation members. We plan to raise this issue there," Kovalev said.

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EU extends for 6 months sanctions against 149 Russian citizens and 37 organizations

He reminded that PA OSCE head said that signatures of European officials will be collected on the impermissibility of imposing sanctions. "He [Kanerva] promised to raise this issue to the level of the Council of Europe and file a corresponding petition. We want to know what has been done in this sphere and what was the reaction to this petition, in particular, that of European officials," Kovalev said.

The delegation member also confirmed that the Russian delegation will submit the draft resolution on impermissibility of sanctions against parliamentarians to the winter session of PA OSCE in Vienna. Russia will raise the issue of migrant crisis in Europe at the session in Vienna as well, Kovalev noted. "We will try to secure the majority [for submitting a draft resolution] on migrants. We need to voice proposals precisely with regard to Europe," the MP said.

Read also

On July 1, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said that Naryshkin will be denied entry to Finland to participate in the PA OSCE session in Helsinki on July 5-9. The decision was explained by the fact that the State Duma speaker was included in EU’s "blacklist" of sanctioned officials.

Naryshkin later announced that the Russian delegation as a whole will not participate in the PA OSCE session in Helsinki, where it planned to put forward draft resolutions on impermissibility of sanctions against parliamentarians and countering Nazism rehabilitation. However, the Duma speaker confirmed that Russia plans to participate in the next PA OSCE session in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator.

The PA OSCE session in Ulan Bator will take place on September 15-18.

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Foreign policy Sanctions vs. Russia OSCE

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