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Russian State Duma speaker urges EU to realize what threatens Eurasia

"We are calling on the French leadership, the leaders of other European countries and the European Union to realize at long last what the main threat [terrorism] for our continent is", Naryshkin said
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin  Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma press service/TASS
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin
© Anna Isakova/Russian State Duma press service/TASS

MOSCOW, July 28 /TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has urged the European Union leadership to realize that threats "born overseas" endanger Eurasia.

"We are calling on the French leadership, the leaders of other European countries and the European Union to realize at long last what the main threat [terrorism] for our continent is and also realize the causes, which have led to the emergence of this threat," Naryshkin said at a meeting with Thierry Mariani, a French National Assembly deputy from the Republicans party and a co-chairman of the Franco-Russian dialogue association, on Thursday.

"Many of these causes do not originate in Europe, they are born overseas. They were born in the same unhealthy heads, which have now invented a concept of deterring Russia, deterring at any cost, including the betrayal and trampling down the ideals and values of the Olympic movement," Naryshkin concluded.

International terrorism main challenge for Russia and France

International terrorism is the main challenge for Russia, Naryshkin also said on Thursday.

"Maintaining active inter-parliamentarian dialogue is very important now because we face common challenges, and the most dangerous, the most terrible challenge is international terrorism," he said.

"Recent sinister terrorist attack in Nice and despicable murder of a Catholic priest in a suburb of Rouen serve as another tragic confirmation of this threatening tendency," Naryshkin noted

On behalf of State Duma deputies, Naryshkin expressed condolences to Mariani and other French parliamentarians over the recent terrorist attacks. "I want to ask you, dear Mr Mariani, to tell your colleagues, tell all our friends in the ‘French-Russian Dialogue’ association that at such hard times for France, Russians are ready to stand by the French people like it happened more than once in history, during both world wars, when France and Russia were allies, were reliable and firm allies," he concluded.

The French delegation of 11 lawmakers and senators led by Mariani are scheduled to visit Crimea from July 29 to 31 to take part in celebrating Russian Navy Day in Sevastopol. Meetings with the Head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, the State Council Chairman, Vladimir Konstantinov, and possibly with Crimea’s Prosecutor General, Natalya Poklonskaya are on the agenda.