All news

MP clues in OSCE PA that their expectations 'for Russia to repent' are 'in vain'

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA) seems to be waiting for the Russian delegation to repent but that is never going to happen, member of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Nikolai Kovalev said.

At the annual summer session of the OSCE PA, held in the Belarusian capital of Minsk last week, a resolution on Eastern Europe was considered, which particularly criticized Russia and Belarus over the human rights situation. However, this document was not adopted.

"It seems they have been waiting for us to repent," Kovalev said at a press conference following the session. "Many of the members (of the OSCE PA) came up to us and said: ‘Look, the Belarusians have made a statement saying that they were a young democracy and needed time to get things right, so why can’t Russia do the same?’," the Russian lawmaker said.

"On my opinion, we will never take this path, it won’t be right," Kovalev added. "There is a huge difference, as Russia occupies a fundamental strategic position, it is a key point," he said.

Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky pointed out that "the number of people willing to visit Crimea has been constantly growing, as we were told on the sidelines of the OSCE PA session."

At the same time, the senior Russian lawmaker said that parliament members from France, Germany and Italy had already visited the Peninsula and had had a chance to form an opinion on the actual situation in Crimea and Sevastopol.

During the Minsk session of the OSCE PA, Slutsky invited all its members to visit Crimea to see the Russian region with their own eyes.