MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Chairman of the State Duma foreign policy committee, Dr. Alexei Pushkov, believes the West has begun to incline towards restoration of parliamentary ties with Russia in spite of persisting disagreements over Ukraine and Syria.
He said in an interview published on Tuesday by Izvestia daily.
"Western sanctions and the striving to isolate Russia have brought up the aftermaths that are rather dramatic form the point of view of parliamentary diplomacy," Dr. Pushkov said. "Like any other type of relations, the inter-parliamentary relations between Russia and the West suffered severely during the crisis."
However, "a feeling appeared of late that the West is inclining towards restoration of parliamentary ties with Russia even though sharp disagreements over Ukraine and Syria remain in place."
"Interest in it has been shown by the leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe," Dr. Pushkov said. "A meeting between State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin and PACE President Pedro Agramunt."
"I've just received a delegation of German Social Democrats who are members of the (parliamentary) international relations committee and they told me, among other things, their party opposes sanctions against members of parliament," he said.
"Many political parties in Europe share this position," Dr. Pushkov said. "We've been told by Greeks, Cypriots, Italians, Austrians, and the French the sanctions against members of parliaments run counter to the principles of democracy and European parliamentarianism."
He said that a critical mass for either lifting of restriction of the sanctions was accumulating gradually.