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Delegation of French lawmakers plans to visit Russia

A delegation of French MPs, headed by National Assembly member Thierry Mariani, plans to visit Moscow in mid-March

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. A delegation of French members of parliament, headed by National Assembly (lower house of parliament) member Thierry Mariani plans to visit Moscow in mid-March, Chief of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said at the Committee’s meeting.

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"On March 16-17, we will receive Thierry Mariani and other members of the French parliament. We haven’t had a meeting of the Large (Russian-)French (Inter-parliamentary) Commission, so we will invite them to talk," Slutskly said.

Some French members of parliament, including Mariani, who is co-chairman of the French-Russian Dialogue association, have visited Russia many times in the recent years. During their stays in Russia, they have particularly visited Crimea. The French lawmakers’ first visit to the Peninsula after Crimea’s reunification with Russia took place in summer 2015 while they made the second visit in late July 2016, visiting Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta, and taking part in the Russian Navy Day celebrations. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office initiated a criminal case against the French members of parliament over "violating the rules regulating entry into Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territory," meaning Crimea.

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